You're My Joy
by AngelNinja
Summary: Van is a ninja tribe master's son. Fiona is a daimyo's daughter. For saving the daimyo's family, Van's father was rewarded with engaging Van and Fiona together when they were just few days old. What future awaits them? Note: some contents were revised.
1. Chapter 1

**You're My Joy**

Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely burrowed his work's characters.

Chapter 1: Reward

A secret village in a middle of Nagano's cool forested highlands was known by only a few persons, most of them were members of the ruling imperial family. A messenger came into the head family's house bearing a message from the daimyo. The daimyo was asking for the village leader's help.

"Dad, are you going out on a mission?" asked an eight year old girl to her father.

"Yeah, Maria. The feudal family received a mutiny threat that is going to take place sooner or later and they want our village's help." replied the man to his. He had a spiky, black hair and a red mark on his cheek.

"Do they already know the person behind the threat?" Maria asked

"Dan, would you be coming home tonight?" his wife asked to him.

"I don't think I can come here tonight, but I will return as soon as possible." He retorted to her.

Then a cry came from one of the rooms. The woman then got up from her mattress and went to where the cry was coming.

"Karen, I'll go get our son." said Dan to his wife. He then picked up a baby boy from that room. Even though he was just three weeks old, everyone in their village always mention the same thing. The boy looks very much like him.

"Darling, don't you think he is your very image?" Karen asked her husband.

"Yeah, Van certainly looks like me. I wish have more time to spend with you and our children." Dan replied to her.

"But I really have to go now." he added.

"Sayonara, Dan and take care." she replied to him.

"Dan, be careful son." an elderly man in his late fifties told his heir.

"Sayonara, Karen and take care of the children." he responded. "Don't worry, otoh-san. I'll be fine." he retorted to his father.

"Let's go,men. We still have a bigger fish to fry." Dan then said to his subordinates.

The platoon of ninjas headed out to the city and upon arriving at the feudal family's palace, the ninja master wasted no time in meeting the feudal lord.

"Atsushi-sama, what would you order me to do now?" he asked to the daimyo.

"Dan, thank goodness you came in time. You know that you're the most reliable of all my servants. The Iteza clan has waged war against us and we need the help of your tribe in order to defeat them." Atsushi retorted to him.

"Don't worry, my lord, I have gathered the best chuunins and jonins in my village for the battle." he assured to his master.

Watching over the fortress, Lord Atsushi's watchers rushed to him immediately to report what they had seen.

"What is it, Hayato?" Atsushi said to his servant.

"Atsushi-sama, the Iteza troops are now closing in! Prozen-dono is with them!" retorted Hayato to his master.

"My hunch is right after all! So General Prozen is the one who made that rebellion threat!" The daimyo muttered.

"Atsushi-sama, I will make sure that traitor would be stopped in his tracks!" the ninja master said to his lord.

"This is the moment the Byakutaka tribe has prepared for. This will be a great battle!" Dan thought.

"Don't worry, Karen-san. I will make sure I will come back alive. This fight is for you and our children, especially Van. I don't want our son to be left fatherless at an early age." he thought again.

At the town a few kilometers away, a war has been waging between the ruling daimyo's family and his rebellious general's clan. The ninjas allied with the ruling daimyo's family arrived just before the oppresive forces reached near the palace's perimeter

"Men, we totally outnumber the Lynette family by four to one. We can easily depose them! Yelled by man with a long, white hair. "Our will now finally rule this land!" he added.

"Atsushi-sama, escape with your family now. Our own troops will escort your travel. I don't want you to get you involved in this!" Dan mentioned to his master.

"No, Dan. I will fight along with you and your men. I will tell my wife and my children to go somewhere safe especially now that our youngest child was born just a week ago." Atsushi replied to him.

"Isami, take care of yourself and our children, especially Fiona. I don't want you to get caught in the chaos that's now brewing!" the daimyo said to his family as he led them to the carriage.

"But dad, what if you get killed in the battle?" his two older children said worriedly.

"Don't worry, Kanata, Rhys. I will ensure you I will return as soon as the war is over!" he assured to them.

"Alright! Take care of yourself!" Isami said in return.

The carriage passed through the castle's back door. In order to conceal their identities, Atsushi told his loved ones to wear ordinary people's costumes. From a distance, the Lynette family members heard the battle cries of hundreds of soldiers. They are making their way through the equally terrified townsfolk.

"Fiona, please don't cry sweet heart. Your father will make sure we will make it thru this siege." Isami said to her baby trying to comfort her other two children.

"Something isn't right! Why did the daimyo's soldiers retreat when we opened the castle's gate? This is the only instance they didn't face the invaders." The white-haired man thought to himself.

"Prozen-sama, our spies had seen the family of the daimyo heading to the edge of the city!" said a lieutenant to his master.

"Just as I had thought! They would try to escape by using the back gate of the castle! Akagi, order the samurai to block the escape route of the feudal family!" Prozen ordered his general. "I will never let you escape!" he thought again.

Inside the palace, the renegade soldiers and the samurais were currently fighting with the rest of the daimyo's soldiers who had a hard time fighting them. It seems the rebels had the upper hand when all of the sudden, Atsushi and his shinobi allies launched a surprise attack.

"Bastards, do you expect me and my soldiers to face you without any help from our ninja comrades?" he yelled at them.

One by one, Prozen's men began to fall to the Atsushi and his Byakutaka ninjas. Most of them were either killed by Dan's subordinate ninjas or paralyzed by poison dipped shurikens. The remaining samurai of Prozen were about to keep on fighting when Akagi ordered them to stop the battle and follow him outside.

"Where do you think they're going? I think they finally decided to back out now." Atsushi told Dan.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. I'm going to chase them, Atsushi-sama!" The ninja leader retorted to his master.

"Prozen-sama, I had ordered the samurai to follow the feudal family but only a few of them were able to do your command. Most of them had been downed when they were confronted by daimyo along with his ninjas!" Akagi reported to his lord.

"Why is that?" Prozen questioned

"What I'm trying to say is there were some ninjas who helped him." Akagi answered in fear.

"What! You mean Atsushi have ninjas fighting in his side?" Prozen furiously said to his lieutenant.

"Yes, Prozen-sama." Akagi responded.

"Why didn't our spies told us anything about that!" said Prozen, obviously enraged.

"It seems our spies never suspected that they would be ninjas in the palace." The lieutenant responded.

"Fools! Your spies are a bunch of stupid people who hadn't considered that possibility!" The general yelled in rage.

"But master, the remaining samurai are on their way to the feudal family. I'm sure Lieutenant Hardin and her comrades have already slain the daimyo's escort troops." Akagi said humbly.

"What was that? Did you say Lieutenant Hardin and her fellow spies are also escorting the Lynette family along with those loyal soldiers of Atsushi?" Prozen asked to his personnel.

The lieutenant only nodded in response to his master.

"If that's the case, then not even the ninjas inside the palace would be able to stop us." The evil general said as he laughed sarcastically.

"Mommy, Hardin is stabbing the other soldiers!" Kanata and Rhys said to their mother in terror.

"What! Hardin, what's the meaning of this?" Isami questioned to the renegade officer and to her comrades as she saw them murder other escort soldiers.

"Isami-sama, I'm just following Prozen-sama's orders. He told me to leave everyone of you as lifeless souls!" the traitor lady said to the daimyo's wife.

"You'll pay for this treachery!" Isami cursed to her as she tried to reach for her sword but was unable to find it.

"Of course I will! Prozen-sama will be the one who will pay for me! He'll promote me to a general once he became the daimyo!" Hardin responded grimly to her.

"Now it's clear that Prozen's samurai are in pursuit of Atsushi-sama's family. And it looks like they have spies among the family's bodyguards!" Dan thought to himself as he saw the rest of the feudal troops slain.

"How do you like me to finish you off? Should I start with you, Isami-sama or should I kill your youngest child first? I will surely enjoy seeing Fiona die in my own hands!" Hardin said sarcastically.

"I won't let you get near any of my children!" Isami retorted to her.

"Then die, all of you!" the traitor servant said to her mistress.

Just as Hardin was about to strike her katana, a fukiya needle hit her hand and made her drop her sword.

"Nani?" the woman uttered as she looked from where the fukiya came from.

"Those swords are meant for protecting the members of Lynette family, not for harming them!" said Dan yelled at Prozen's lackeys.

"Just who do you think you are?" Hardin shouted at him.

"I'm just Atsushi-sama's best friend and the Lynette family's most faithful servant." The ninja said in return.

"Get him, men. We have to make sure Prozen-sama will take over!" Hardin ordered her troops.

"Let's see if you can!" Dan taunted to them.

As the battle raged between Dan and the traitorous body guards, Atsushi and Prozen faced each other off in a one on one combat. The two men's swords clashed at each other with neither one of them gaining the upper hand.

"Prozen, stop your foolishness now. All of your men have been defeated." Atsushi said to him.

"Why should I? The rest of my troops have gone after your beloved wife and children." Prozen replied to him.

"Kisama! What did you do to them?" the daimyo questioned in rage.

"Let's say I gave them a well deserved rest." The treacherous general answered.

"I wouldn't say that if I were you!" Dan yelled at Prozen.

"Who are you and what do you mean by that?" Prozen asked.

"Isn't this woman a traitor just like you!" the ninja asked in return. "What's more, your samurai' skills are far inferior to my samurai friends' abilities." Dan continued.

"Don't worry, Atsushi-sama, your family wasn't hurt at all." The ninja said to his master.

"Isami, are you okay?" Atsushi asked to his wife.

"I and the children are just fine thanks to Dan-san." she replied in return.

"Prozen, you and your remaining men should at least appreciate that we haven't killed you. The next time you lead a rebellion against Atsushi-sama and his loved ones, you would find your self in the graveyard after my ninja-ken has been thrust into your heart!" Dan warned.

"You may have won this time, Atsushi but next time, you and your family wouldn't be so lucky!" Prozen shouted at them as he and his troops retreated reluctantly.

After the Iteza army had retreated, the Lynette family and Dan's tribesmen regrouped inside the Palace compound.

"Arigato Gozai Mazu, Freiheit Dan. If it weren't you, family wouldn't be able to escape." Atsushi mentioned to his ninja.

"It's my duty as your friend and servant to protect my master's family." The ninja master retorted to him humbly.

"For that, tell me what reward you want me to give you after all you have done for us." The daimyo said to him.

"Master, your trust in me and my tribe is enough of a reward." Dan replied to him.

"Aside for that?" Atsushi asked.

"Atsushi-sama, I'll let you decide for that matter." The ninja master retorted to him.

"Hey Dan, isn't it you have a three week old son?" the daimyo asked.

"Yes, master. His name is Van" Dan replied.

"What do you say if we engage Van to my one week old Fiona and have them married to each other once they are eighteen years old?" Atsushi offered.

"Atsushi-sama, are you sure about that?" the ninja master asked.

"Of course! Ever since the two of us were kids, you have always protected my parents and grandparents. Once, you had saved me from being mauled by a bear at the Sawaki forest when we were just ten, isn't it?" The daimyo retorted to him.

"Besides, this is the only thing me and my husband can exchange for your help besides the payment for your services." Isami added.

"Thank you, my masters." Dan retorted humbly.

"Dan, don't call me Atsushi-sama. I'm only as high as you are, my dear friend." the daimyo had declared.

"No, please let me refer to you as my master." the ninja master insisted.

"Fine then, but you may also simply call me Atsushi." he has responded in turn.

"So how is your mission, Dan?" Karen asked her husband as she was making Van go to sleep.

"We have succeeded in protecting the feudal family without having one of our men killed in battle, but some of them had been injured seriously." The ninja master retorted to his wife.

"Still, let's be thankful that the group you had personally headed all returned alive here. I'm proud of that you have surpassed me, son." Dan's father had congratulated to him.

"That's great!" Karen said.

"There is something even greater." Dan replied. "What is it?" his wife asked.

"Atsushi-sama and Isami-sama made a deal with me. They said that in exchange for saving them, he has engaged his one week old daughter Fiona to our son. They said that once they reached eighteen years old, we would have the two of them married to each other." The ninja master mentioned to his wife.

"Sore Honma?" Karen asked again.

"Yes." he answered.

"Dan, for me, this is the best thing that they have given to us ever! I can't believe they have engaged Van to Fiona-Hime." she said to her husband as she embraced him.

"You heard that, Van? You and Fiona-Hime will get married at eighteen. Tonight, we'll have a party for our victory, especially for you." Dan said to his son.

The boy only smiled back to his father in response. That same night, the Freiheits and the rest of the Baykutaka tribe celebrated over their victory without a single casualty.

(That's all for now. I really hope you would like this since it's my first fanfic. I have edited this version and removed every honorifics except for the honorifics used for royal blooded people.)


	2. Chapter 2

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was authored by Michiro Ueyama. One more thing is that the title is based on Flame of Recca opening theme: Nanka Shiawase, meaning "What is Happiness?")

Chapter 2: Ohjo no Shugo Chuunin(The Princess' Guardian Chuunin)

Twelve years later….

"Congratulations, you are now officially a chuunin! According to our judges, you are the best shinobi in your age bracket!" said a jonin to a twelve year old boy who has shadow-black hair set in a crown-like manner.

"Arigato, Krueger-sensei!" replied the boy to his teacher.

"Van, you certainly made me proud, son!" Dan mentioned to his son.

"Dad, you know that as your son, I have to be as good as you since I would be the next leader of the Byakutaka tribe." Van responded to his father.

"Very well then." said Dan. "His mother is right. He grows more and more like me as each day passes. When he was a kid, he was a little bit dense to be ninja but over time, he became the strongest and most cunning genin in our village." he thought.

"Dan, I am amazed by our son's achievements." Karen told her husband.

"Me too!" he replied to his wife.

"Hey, isn't this day Fiona-Hime's birthday, right?" she asked him.

"Yeah, and it's only a matter of a few years before she and our son get married." Dan retorted to her.

"Does Van know that he's already engaged to the princess?" Karen asked.

"No, he still hasn't the slightest clue yet." He said in return.

"Van, I thought that Raven of the Benitora clan would beat you in this match but at the last second, you managed to bring him down!" said Maria to her younger brother.

"Nee-san, cut it out, you're suffocating me!" Van replied to her sister. "Zeke, help me loosen Maria nee-san's grip!" he said to his eagle.

"Alright Van, you don't need to do that." retorted Maria.

As the Freiheit family was about to head home, a messenger of the feudal family came to then.

"Dan-dono, Atsushi-sama wanted your son to come to his palace tonight." Said the messenger to the ninja leader.

"Is that so, Yabuki?" Dan asked.

"Yes, master. Atsushi-sama said that your son is the best chuunin in your tribe." Yabuki retorted.

"Well then, I guess Van has to go right away." he said. "Van, my friend wants you to come to his palace right away. I think he has something important for you.' Dan said as he looked at his son.

"Really?" Van questioned.

"Yes.' his father replied.

"Yosh!' Van responded as he left his family.

While Van was savoring the praises of most of the people there, a thirteen year old chuunin was sulking at a nearby tree.

"I'll make sure I will beat Van someday!" said a boy in a weak voice.

"Raven, take it easy. At least you still became a chuunin! For me, it's already something to be proud of!" said the man to his child.

"But being the champion at the chuunin promotions is even better!" Raven replied.

"Well son, I guess you have to wait until the Jonin promotions. I hope you'll be able to keep your oath to yourself." Raven's father told him as he tried to cheer him up.

In the middle of the Sawaki forest, a carriage was making its way though the cleared track. However, the supposed occupant of the carriage had walked away from the rest of her company.

"Fiona-Hime isn't this way to far from your carriage? What's more, you should welcome your guests for your birthday celebration today." said a woman with dark, curly hair.

"I know that, Moonbay-san but I can't resist exploring the beauty of the Sawaki forest. I want to find out what lies beyond." replied Fiona to her servant.

"But master…" Moonbay said.

"There is still plenty of time, Moonbay-san." the princess retorted to her as she ran deeper in the forest.

It didn't take long for the princess to get lost in the woods as the time for her birthday celebration drew closer.

"Moonbay-san, Moonbay-san, where are you? Are you still in there?" Fiona yelled in the forest.

"Fiona-Hime, Fiona-Hime, where are you?" Moonbay yelled at the same time.

The two of them had been calling out each other's name with their full voice for nearly an hour but due to their distance from each other, their had not been able to hear each other's voice. Fiona had been exhausted with all of the shouting. And so did Moonbay.

"I wish I had listened to Moonbay-san. Dad will surely be disappointed with what I have done." Fiona thought.

Moonbay had been looking out for her master ever since the two of them parted ways. She was about to ask help from the feudal family's guards when all of a sudden , she heard a loud scream coming from the northeast.

"Get away from me!" Fiona shouted loudly as a mountain lion approached her. She was about to be attacked when someone came.

"Hey you, why don't you try me!"yelled Van, calling the mountain lion's attention. "Miss, run away now! This may get very bloody." he said to her.

The boy and the mountain lion fought for several minutes but in the end, the boy succeeded in slaying the big cat.

"Miss, you're safe now." he mentioned to Fiona.

"Arigato Gozai Mazu! If you hadn't come on time, that mountain lion might have eaten me now." The princess replied to her. "Um, by the way, who are you and what is your name and what are you doing here?" she added.

"Hmm, boku wa Freiheit Van. I'm here because my dad told me to go to the city. I have to go there since he said something important was going to happen there." Van replied. "Soreyori, nani wa anata no namae?" he added.

"My name is Fiona from the Lynette family. I'm grateful to meet you, Freiheit-kun." Fiona replied to him.

"Please don't call me Freiheit-kun, just Van." he requested to her. "So if you're from the Lynette family, then that means your father is none other that the daimyo, Atsushi-sama." Van continued.

"Yes, but how did you know about that?" Fiona asked.

"Well, the truth is that your father had sent a message to our village that he wanted me to come to his palace since according to your father himself, I am the best chuunin there." he responded.

"So you're a ninja?" the princess said to him.

"I absolutely am." Van replied. "So shall I take you to the palace, Fiona-Hime?" he added.

Fiona only nodded in response. Van then quickly carried her out of the woods. As they ventured out of the forest, the two of them met Moonbay.

"Van, if you're going to address me as Hime, please don't add sama to my title. I'm not used to being called Fiona-Hime-sama." the princess demended.

"Hai." Van replied as they approached Moonbay.

"Fiona-Hime, how did you manage to get out of the forest and who is this boy that came with you?" Moonbay asked.

"Moonbay-san, his name is Freiheit Van. He was the one who saved me from the mountain lion that I had encountered." the princess responded to her servant.

"Arigato, Freiheit-kun, for finding my master and saving her from a mountain lion! If it wasn't for you, she might have been hurt." Moonbay mentioned to him in appreciation.

"I'm just doing my job as a shinobi but please, don't call me Freiheit-kun, just call me Van." the chuunin retorted.

"Hey Van, are you the ninja whom Atsushi-sama had called upon when I met Yabuki?" Moonbay asked him.

"Yeah, that sure was me." Van replied. "But don't you think that it is already time for us to head back to the palace?" he added.

"Well then, let's head back." Fiona said.

At the Lynette family's palace…

"Dad, I'm so sorry if I'm late for the party…" Fiona said to her father.

"That's fine. Moonbay told me everything that had happened. She said that you were saved by a ninja." Atsushi answered to his daughter.

"Van, thanks for your bravery! I don't know what would I do if my daughter had been mauled by that mountain lion." the daimyo mentioned to Van.

"I'm just following the rules of our tribe, Atsushi-sama. You don't have to thank me for that!" the chuunin riposted to his master.

"Very well then, let's begin the celebration!" Atsushi announced.

While the guests were celebrating, Fiona walked away from the crowd.

"Hime, where are you going?" Van asked.

"Hum, there are too many people in the hall yet I just want to have a private time for myself. So I went here in the balcony." Fiona retorted to him. "How about you?" she asked in return.

"Huh, well, I'm just a ninja so I have no right to share in the celebration with royal blooded guests." the young shinobi replied.

"No! You have a right to join the celebration. You risked your life in order to save mine." The princess mentioned to him.

"Really?" Van asked her.

"Of course!" Fiona responded.

While the two of them were telling their respective stories to each other, they were unaware that they were being watched.

"Well, Isami, it seems our daughter and her future husband is starting to develop their feelings towards each other." Atsushi said to his wife.

"From what could I see, I would agree that you're right." Isami responded.

Van and Fiona had spent the whole party time with each other alone. They have barely felt the passing of time.

"So you are the heir to the Byakutaka tribe!" Fiona exclaimed.

"Hai." Van responded.

"Huh, good thing you have something to be proud of. I don't have anything to call as my own honor." the princess replied to the ninja.

"Don't say such things, Hime. I'm sure that you have something special to be proud of!" the chuunin replied to her.

"What could that be?" Fiona asked to him.

"I don't know. It's up to you to discover that." Van replied to her. "But there is something I want to tell you." he added.

"What is it?" she asked him again.

"From this day onward, I would be your faithful personal ninja, your highness!" he responded to her.

Fiona was shocked by what Van mentioned to her. Not only that she has been saved by him earlier that day but also by what she heard from him.

"Are you sure about that?" the princess questioned to her.

"A good ninja is always sure about his actions!" the shinobi replied to her.

"Atsushi, did you heard what Dan's son said to our daughter?" Isami asked her husband as they watched the two of them from a distance.

"I heard it clearly. He is definitely like his father in almost every aspect." the daimyo retorted. "I think our decision to engage her to him was right after all." he added.

"It certainly looks like this is the case here." His wife complemented him.

After that, the chuunin thanked them and left with full of energy. At the Freiheit's residence…

"How did your mission went?" Dan asked to his son.

"It went perfectly fine for me." Van riposted to his father.

"Hmmm. From your looks, it seems that you're somewhat inspired." the ninja master mentioned to his son.

"You could say that again. Actually, I met Atsushi-sama's daughter. Man, she's very beautiful and very nice." the young shinobi replied to him.

"So what is her name?" Dan asked once more.

"Her name is Fiona." Van answered.

"So how your meeting with her did went?" he asked again to his son.

"Well, we have had a little conversation." his son riposted to him with quiet a reservation.

"Van, tell me. There is more to it that just a small conversation, right?" Dan mentioned to him

"Actually, I promised her that from now on, I would be her loyal ninja. I will keep that vow for the rest of my life!" Van told his father while he blushed heavily.

"The deal that Atsushi-sama and I had made twelve years ago is now starting to be realized. From my perspective, I could see he has a very deep crush on her that could develop into real love. It's as if God had given the two of them just for each other alone." Dan muttered to himself.

At the Lynette fanily's palace…

"Rhys nee-san, what would you do if a ninja vowed to be your protector for the rest of your life, would you accept his offer?' Fiona asked her sister.

"Why did you ask me about that? Rhys questioned.

"It's because someone promised me that he would be my faithful ninja for the rest of his life." she replied to her.

"What! You mean you have a personal ninja?" Rhys yelled, quiet surprised.

"Yes. And his name is Freiheit Van." Fiona retorted as she blushed.

"Oh, you mean that chuunin who had saved you?" she asked her younger sister.

"Yes, it's exactly him whom I'm talking about." Fiona responded as she blushed heavier.

"I can see that you have a crush on him, isn't it?" Rhys said to her.

"Yes, kind of like that." the princess answered to her sister as she tried her new ao dai clothes.

Well, I don't think this chapter is good enough for you. But I would still appreciate your comments even if they are good or bad. I don't know when I would update next but I would try as soon as possible. My college life is really a hectic one. Arigato Gozai Mazu().


	3. Chapter 3

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely borrowed his characters. And please forgive me, Van Freiheit fans. His disposition would partially become like that of Mikagami from Flame of Recca in the following chapter/s.)

Chapter 3: Hishou Ai wo Edo no Sora (Soaring Love in the Sky of Edo)

A few days later, Fiona was walking alone in the meadows. As usual, she had slipped past Moonbay's eyes. She then suddenly heard a strange sound from behind.

"Anata wa nani?" the princess yelled.

"Hime, you don't need to shout like that. It's just me, Van." The chuunin replied to her.

"Sumimasen. I thought you're another mountain lion like the one that had attacked me on my birthday." she responded to him.

"So what are you doing here, your highness?" Van asked her.

"Well, I'm just taking a walk for myself." Fiona answered to her ninja. "How about you?" she added.

"Huh, well, I was about to go to the stream to catch some catfish for our lunch when I heard your yell." the shinobi retorted.

"Sorry for disturbing you." the princess mentioned to him.

"No, no, no, no. You're not disturbing me. Anyway, it's just seven thirty in the morning. I still have a lot of time to catch lunch. Want to see me capture a fish?" the young ninja said to her.

"Hai!" Fiona responded.

Van and Fiona then walked together towards the stream and after a few minutes, the two of them arrived at the nearby stream.

"This should be easy." Van thought as he prepared to grab the fish in the shallows. But then his target had slipped from his hand.

"Van, I thought that you wouldn't have any effort in catching that fish?" the princess said.

"Hime, just wait and see how I'm going to capture that." The chuunin replied to her.

A few minutes later…

"Hime, look! I got a bigger fish than the one that had slipped past me." Van said to Fiona. "Do you want me to cook this fish for you?" he asked her.

"What about your obligation of catching lunch for your family?" she questioned to him.

"Don't worry. It's way too early to catch lunch for them. Besides, I haven't eaten breakfast yet." the ninja responded to her. "How about you? Have you eaten your breakfast?" he asked her in return.

"Not yet. Okay, you could cook that fish for me. But we must share that together. I can't eat all of that fish by myself." the princess replied to him.

"Hai." Van retorted to her.

"Say, Van. Do you always go fishing every morning?" the princess asked him.

"No. Just when I wanted to go fishing or when my grandpa wants to eat catfish." the chuunin replied to her.

"Arigato Gozai Mazu, Van!" Fiona said to him.

"For what?" the young ninja asked in response.

"For being my ninja." she retorted.

"Hime, you don't have to thank me for that. My father served Atsushi-sama as his ninja because he is his friend, so I shall also serve you because you're also my friend." Van replied.

When the princess heard what her ninja had said, she sighed and lost her appetite. She thought that Van would view her as more than as a friend.

"I wish Van-kun would at least mention that he has a crush on me." Fiona thought.

Van noticed Fiona's reaction when she heard what he had mentioned. That was something that he had not meant to say to her.

"Maybe I should have told her she is more than just a friend to me." Van reflected. "Ah, Hime, would you want to go out with me to join the kite flying festival on Saturday?" he asked her.

"Huh, well, yes. I will, Van." she replied to him.

After the two of them finished their breakfast, Van took a little nap under a willow tree while Fiona went to the brook to bathe. There, the young princess cried as she thought about what her chuunin had accidentally said.

"I was thinking that Van-kun have feelings for me. I guess I was wrong." Fiona cried.

A while later, Van woke up from his nap. He immediately noticed that Fiona was not there.

"Where did Hime go?" Van wondered. "I wish I had been braver about my self at that time. I should have had told her that I like her." Van reasoned to himself.

"Hime, Hime, where are you?" Van yelled.

The young ninja soon found out where his princess was. He heard Fiona's cries as he came near the brook. Fiona also noticed the movement in the bush and she turned around, she and Van saw each other. The young lady then screamed when her ninja had seen her naked.

"Hime, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I was just searching for you when you saw me and screamed!" Van said as he turned his head away from her and covered his eyes.

"You don't have to apologize for me. I should have let you know that I am here." Fiona relied as she put her clothes on.

After Fiona fixed herself, Van took her back to Moonbay and her other companions.

"Moonbay-san, I'm sorry if I didn't tell you that Fiona-Hime came with me earlier this morning." Van apologized to the princess's servant.

"That's fine, Freiheit-kun. We know you're a very reliable person." Moonbay answered.

"Hey, didn't I told you not to call me Freiheit-kun, just Van." the young ninja said to her.

"Alright, Van, if that's what you want." Moonbay replied to him.

"Hey, Moonbay, did you already find my sister?" Kanata yelled as he approached her.

"No, Kanata-sama. But Van took her back to us." the servant said to her master.

"Van, you mean the son of my father's best friend?" the prince asked her.

"Hai." Moonbay replied to him.

"Arigato Gozai Mazu, Van-san for taking my sister back to us." Kanata said as he turned to the young ninja.

"Kanata-sama, you don't need to thank me for that. I'm just doing my duty as your sister's ninja." Van replied to him.

"Kanata nii-sama, Van is a very good person. In fact, he prepared a breakfast for me earlier." the princess said to her older sibling.

"Well, I should also thank you for that Van-san." Kanata said to him.

"Don't mention it." the chuunin replied to the prince.

"Van, we have to leave now. Our parents might be worried about us at this moment." Fiona said to Van as she went inside her carriage.

"So long, Hime. I'll be waiting for you at the city's park on Saturday morning at nine, Okay?" he replied to her.

"Hai." she said.

"Maybe I should tell Fiona-Hime about my feelings for her." Van reflected as he went back to his routine.

After five days, at the Lynette Family's palace…

"Fiona, you look excited today. Tell me why, sweetie?" Atsushi asked his daughter.

"Well dad, Van and I are going out to the town square to watch the kite flying festival today." the princess responded to her father.

"Hey, I heard you and Rhys talking to each other several days ago. When she asked you if you like Freiheit-san, you answered yes, isn't it." Kanata mentioned to his youngest sister.

"Yeah. Don't deny it, Fiona." Rhys complemented their brother.

"Nii-sama, nee-san, please don't say that." she retorted to her older siblings.

"Fiona, it's alright for me and your father if you have a crush on Freiheit-kun. We had noticed it when you were having a conversation in the balcony. Besides, the two of us like him because he is a very good person, so there is nothing wrong with that." Isami said to her daughter.

"So when are the two of you going to meet?" the daimyo asked her.

"Hmm, about nine this morning at the central park." Fiona replied.

"Then better get ready. It's already eight quarter." Isami told her daughter.

"Hai." the princess answered.

Meanwhile, at the Byakutaka Tribe's village, the Freiheit family was doing their usual routines. The only thing unusual that morning was that Van was doing things in a very hurried manner.

"Van, are going somewhere?" Dan questioned to his son.

"Hai. Me and Fiona-Hime are going to join in the kite flying festival this morning." the chuunin replied to his father.

"Well, son, you better get going." he mentioned in return.

"But how about nee-san? She asked me to help her train in sword fighting." Van said to his father.

"I'll be the one to teach her. After all, I'm the one who taught you everything you know about fighting with swords." Dan replied to his son.

"Okay. It's time to go. Just tell Mom, nee-san and grandpa that I have left." the chuunin said to him as he picked up his kite.

"Take care of yourself, son. Be careful." the jonin riposted to him.

"It seems my son is now a lover boy." Dan muttered to himself.

After a few minutes, Van and Fiona met at the feudal palace's gates.

"I'm sorry for being late, Hime." Van said to her in apology.

"No, Van. It's perfectly fine. I only finished dressing up just before you came in here." the young lady replied.

"So are you ready to go now?" the chuunin asked her.

"Hai." she retorted.

"Let's go, Hime." Van said to her.

"Dad, Mom, I'm going to leave now." Fiona said to her parents.

"Alright. Take care of yourself. Don't go out of Van-kun's sight." Atsushi and Isami responded.

"Isami, our daughter is growing lovelier and more womanly everyday." the daimyo said to his wife.

"I noticed that too. What's more, I noticed that she and Van-kun is getting closer every time they meet." she replied to Atsushi.

At the park…

"Van, you didn't tell me you're going to bring your own kite here." Fiona said to Van.

"Sorry about that. I thought that you would love my surprise." he retorted.

"Van, let me fly that kite." the princess demanded from her ninja.

"Sure. But you have to fly this kite with my help." the young ninja replied.

Fiona then held the kite at the top of an earthen mound while Van ran down the mound and pulled the kite by the rope, setting it airborne. the princess then went to her shinobi's side and held their kite's rope with him.

"Van, I didn't expect this to be this difficult." she said to him.

"See. If you had not accepted my aid, you would have easily set this kite crashing down." he replied to her.

"Kawaii!" Fiona said as she marveled at the kite's beauty.

"Kirei!" Van muttered as he stared upon Fiona.

"Did you said something, Van?" the young lady asked him.

"No, no. But I want to tell you about something." the young ninja replied.

"What?" she pressed him.

"Well, come with me over there." he responded.

Van and Fiona then went up the mound again and had their kite's rope tied up into a nearby willow tree.

"Hime, you see these jasmine flowers?" Van asked her.

"Hai." Fiona answered.

"They're cute aren't they?" he said.

"Hai. I absolutely love jasmine flowers." she retorted to him.

"Have you ever wondered how it feels to be unable to tell someone that you like him or her more than they think or apologize to that person for the words that you didn't mean to say to him or her?" the shinobi asked her.

"Well, I had experienced that before. It was very disappointing and heartbreaking to be not able to tell someone how you really feel about him. What's even more disappointing is that person only sees me as a friend and nothing more than that." the princess replied as her eyes got watery.

"You know Hime, people are just like these flowers. If you can't keep these flowers, don't pick them." he mentioned to her.

"Hime, I know that the person you're referring to is me, isn't it?" Van said to her.

"No, you're just mistaken!" the princess responded.

"Don't deny it. I know you're disappointed about me because you expect me to see you more than just a friend." he said to her. "I don't know how to say this but let me show to you what I want to tell you." the shinobi said to her.

Van than held Fiona's face and kissed her lips with his full passion. Fiona was quite shocked by what her ninja has done. But the warmth of his lips, along with the sensation of his tongue rubbing against her tongue made her submit to him. After a few moments, the two of them broke the kiss to grasp some air.

"Hime, sorry for not saying to you what I feel about you. You see, I'm just a ninja serving under your family and that you're a royal blooded person reserved for a royal blooded man." Van said to her.

"So that means…" Fiona asked him.

"Hai. I love you, Fiona-Hime. That is the reason I asked you to go out with me this morning." the ninja said to her.

"Van, I love you too." she responded to him.

"Van, why are you looking depressed?" Fiona asked him.

"It's just that like I said before, the two of us are of different social status. You came from a noble family while I am just a servant that would never be able to have someone like you." Van said in a sad tone.

"Van, you're wrong! My parents like you for me because of your character." the princess countered to him.

"They do?" the chuunin asked.

"Hai. Even Kanata nii-sama and Rhys nee-san approves you for Me." the young lady retorted.

Van was surprised at what Fiona told him. He hadn't expected his masters to favor him for their daughter. A few minutes later, the two of them went to the nearby stalls for a snack.

"Van, you want some sushi?" the princess questioned to him.

"Sure, why not." he replied as he took a bite.

"Van-san, I didn't expect to find you here." a black haired boy said to him.

"Raven-san, what are you doing here?" the young chuunin asked him.

"You could say that I'm tracking you down as my rival ever since the day we became chuunins. But you should always remember I won't let you defeat me next time we have a battle!" Raven answered to him. "For the mean time, I'm going to enjoy myself here." he added before he went his own way.

"Van, you know him?" the princess asked Van.

"Yeah. Raven-san was my opponent in the final part of the chuunin test." the young ninja replied to her.

"Hmmm. I think Raven-san is a good ninja just like you." she mentioned to her shinobi.

"He really is. In fact, he could have defeated me if he was just slightly more careful." Van retorted to her.

"But Van, you're still the number one ninja for me." Fiona responded.

"Arigato, Hime." he answered to her.

While Van and Fiona were enjoying their little meal, a lady with a white hawk approached the two of them. She had long, black hair and a red mark on her right cheek.

"Konichiwa, Van. I thought I would not be able to catch up with the festival here in the park." the woman said to him.

"Nee-san, you're already finished training?" the young ninja said to her.

"Hai. Good thing I always watch you whenever you and dad are having swords fighting drill." she answered to her younger brother.

"Van, do you know her?" Fiona questioned to him.

"Hai. She is my older sister, Maria nee-san. She is considered to be the most elite kunoichi in our tribe." Van replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry for not bowing before you first, Fiona-Hime." Maria said as she paid her respect for the princess.

"Maria-san, please don't that while were here outside." Fiona riposted to the kunoichi as she stopped her from bowing down.

"Arigato, Hime." Maria said in gratitude.

"Van, I thought that you're going to fly your kite here." Maria asked her brother.

"We would resume it after our snack." he responded.

After the meal, Van and Fiona went back to the crowd and flew their kite together. Maria then went to other stalls to purchase some items to take home.

"Van, higher." the young lady urged to Van.

"I'll try." the ninja replied to her.

"Van, I want you to take me out again here next year." the princess told Van.

"Hime, I'll do as you say." Van answered.

"Arigato, Van. That's the reason I fell for you." Fiona said.

Van then wrapped his right arm around Fiona's back.

After four hours, the judgement for the best kite in the festival was announced. Even though Van and Fiona's kite was not among the best, they certainly enjoyed their bonding moment. A few minutes later, the two of them met with Maria again.

"Van, I think you should take Fiona-Hime back to the feudal palace before Atsushi-sama and Isami-sama worry about her." the kunoichi mentioned to her brother. "Well then, see you back home." she added.

"I think you're right. It's getting late." he answered.

"Let's go, Hime!" the chuunin said to Fiona.

"Hai." she answered.

Van and Fiona then left the central park and headed toward the direction of the feudal palace. Van was looking at the sky while they were walking.

"Van, what are you looking at?" Fiona questioned to Van.

"Hime, Isn't the setting of the sun beautiful?" Van asked the princess as the two of them crossed the moat in front of the palace's gates.

Fiona nodded in reply to Van's question.

"Van, I wish we have more times like this." the young lady mentioned to her shinobi.

"I also want to do this more often." Van retorted to her. "Well, here we are. Until we meet again next time." he said as they reached the end of palace's bridge.

"Hime, I love you!" the ninja told her.

"Van, I love you!" the princess whispered to Van's ear in response.

"Sayonara, Hime!" he mentioned as he went his own way.

"Sayonara, Van." Fiona riposted.

When Van returned to home, his parents were awaiting his return from the festival.

"So how did your date with Fiona-Hime went?" Dan asked his son.

"Well the two of us enjoyed the flying our kite amongst the crowd." he replied to his father.

"Really? I'm sure the two of you did something more than that." Karen said to Van.

"Whatever that is, it's my secret." Van replied in a polite way to his mother.

"Karen, if our son doesn't want to tell us what he had mentioned or done to my best friend's child, then leave it that way. He will tell us sooner or later." Dan said to his wife.

"Son, it seems your boy have a very similar atitude to you." Van's grandfather had mentioned to Dan.

"Mochiron, otoh-san." Dan had respectfully responded to his father.

At the balcony of the palace, Fiona and Rhys were talking about what had happened earlier that day.

"So did you tell Freiheit-kun about your feelings for him?" Rhys asked her younger sibling.

"Hai. I told him that I like him very much." Fiona replied to her sister.

"So how did he respond to what you mentioned to him?" Rhys questioned.

"Van-kun confessed to me that he also like me very much!" the younger lady riposted.

Finally, I havefinished my fanfic's third chapter. I hope you like it. Arigato Gozai Mazu (-)! Just post your suggestions and/or comments in your reviews. I would appreciate it very much whether they are good or bad.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Iteza-Ichizoku no Gunchoh to Uragirimono no Samurai Kan no Torihiki (Deal Between the Iteza Clan's army and the Traitor Samurai)

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely burrowed Ueyama-sensei's characters)

"Atsushi, you may have won the battle last time but my war with you is not yet over! I swear that you and your family will be eliminated!" a silver haired man muttered to himself.

"Prozen-sama, I know that you haven't given up your ambition of taking control of this region. But as long as Atsushi's head ninja is still by his side, we won't stand a chance against them." A pink haired woman said to his master.

"I know that, Hardin. If there is only a way to capture that elusive bastard, Atsushi's reign will come to its' demise." Prozen yelled to his general.

"My humble apologies, Prozen-sama!" she responded to the cruel person.

"Atsushi, I won't let you humiliate me again like what you and your accursed ninja has done to me twelve years ago." Prozen thought as an evil grin crossed his face.

Meanwhile, in the Lynette family's palace, Fiona was strolling along their garden when her shinobi suddenly show up….

"Ohayo, Hime!" the chuunin greeted to her.

"Ohayo, Van-kun...oops, sumimasen." the princess replied to him.

"Hime, you don't have to apologize to me. It's perfectly fine." Van responded.

"Hmmm, Van, have you told your parents about what we did in the park?" Fiona asked him.

"Nope! But I think my father and my mother suspect there is something more between us." the ninja answered. "By the way, Atsushi-sama have summoned me and my dad since the two of them have something to discuss. He said that I should teach you archery while they are taking care of something important." he added.

"Really?" the young lady asked.

"Hai." the chuunin retorted as he handed a bow and some arrows to her.

Inside the palace's main hall…

"Dan, I have received rumors that the Iteza clan is planning to wage another power struggle. I'm sure that Prozen is once again the person behind this so I want your men to keep an eye on them." Atsushi mentioned to his servant.

"Atsushi-sama, I'm also sure that Prozen would take all the necessary measures in order to prevent a repetition of his failure twelve years ago, so most likely he would use some ninjas against us." the jonin riposted to his master.

"Do you think some of your men defected to him?" Atsushi asked him.

"Unlikely. I always make sure that no one in my tribe will betray us. And in case someone does, I'll make sure he or she will be hanged in a cliff." Dan replied to him.

"So that means the only thing we must ensure is to should stop him from having his own ninjas as soon as possible." the daimyo said. "But in the meantime, have you told your son about the deal?" the daimyo asked.

"Not yet. How about your daughter, Atsushi-sama? Have you already told her?" Dan questioned in return.

"It's still a secret to her. Only we and our respective wives are the ones who know about this." he responded.

The two of them were unaware that Kanata and Rhys were listening.

"Nii-sama, good thing Fiona and Van-kun aren't here right now. If either one of them two heard what Dad had said, they would insist to get married as soon as they want." Rhys said to her brother.

But there is another person listening secretly to them who is enraged about Van and Fiona's engagement.

"I can't believe Atsushi-sama would engage Fiona-Hime to that servant's son." a sixteen year old samurai muttered to himself. "I guess I have to do every necessary step to force Van and the princess apart." he thought.

The samurai then went to the archery field and as soon as he arrived, he aimed an arrow towards the chuunin. However, Van slashed the projectile with his ninja-ken, deflecting and splitting the arrow at the same time.

"Who's that?" Fiona asked her ninja.

"I don't know but I'll search for him." Van replied to her and headed towards the bushes.

"This boy is no push over. He can't be hit with just one shot!" the samurai reflected as moved to a clearer location. However, he was caught by the boy he wanted to kill.

"Going somewhere?" the young ninja asked him.

"No, I just came here to finish you!" he replied to Van as he drew his sword and tried to slash the chuunin. Van then blocked the attack with the tekagi he was wearing on one of his hands, disabling the katana. At the same time, he entangled the samurai with a manriki-gusari chain.

"Van, that's…. Eric-san." Fiona said as she approached them.

"Eric" You mean one of the samurai guarding the feudal court?" Van asked the princess.

"Hai." the young lady answered. "Eric-san, why did you aimed an arrow at us?" she asked the samurai.

"Hime, what if this guy wanted to hurt you? As your father's servant, I can't let anyone harm you and your siblings." Eric lied to them.

"I understand. However, Van won't hurt me. It is my dad who asked him to teach me archery." the princess said in a gentle voice.

"Should I let him go, Hime?" the chuunin asked Fiona.

"Hai." Fiona responded.

Van then released Eric from his entanglement. As soon as the samurai was free, he left Van and Fiona alone in the archery field. The ninja and the princess then continued what they had been doing earlier.

"I swear Fiona-Hime will be mine." Eric thought. As he headed back to the palace, he saw Lieutenant Hardin eating in a nearby stall. Eric then approached the pink haired woman.

"You're Lieutenant Hardin, am I right?" the samurai said to her.

"Hai. What do you want?" Hardin asked him.

"Let's just say Lynette Atsushi has done something very horrible to that I'm willing to serve under Prozen-sama as my retribution." Eric replied.

"And what service could a samurai like you do to Prozen-sama?" the pink-haired lieutenant asked him.

"I know who is the leader of the Lynette family's ninjas, the ninja who had brought humiliation to your master!" he said in a convincing voice. "If you won't accept my help, then I'm sure Prozen-sama would lose for the second time." the samurai added and started to walk away.

"Wait, comeback. I'll give you a place in Prozen-sama's army in exchange for what you know." Hardin mentioned to him.

"Well then' it's settled. And I have a plan which we could use to capture that ninja." Eric said with bitterness in his voice.

After four days at the Sawaki forest's urban edge….

"Dan, I know that beast is planning another rebellion so this time I'll fight by your side." Karen said to her husband.

"Arigato, Karen! Thanks for helping me. That Prozen surely never learned from his mistakes." he replied to his wife.

"Hey Dan, look at there! Aren't those Hayato-san and Yabuki-san?" the kunoichi pointed to the nearby bloody bodies.

Dan and Karen then approached Hayato and Yabuki who had been lying on the ground in critical condition.

"Hayato-kun, Yabuki-kun, what happened?" the jonin asked to Akira's servants.

"Dan-dono, the two of us had been ambushed by the Iteza clan's soldiers while Eric-san fell into a hole dug by those bastards." Hayato said to him before dying.

"Hayato-kun, wake up! wake up!" Dan shouted as he tried to revive him. "Iteza-gun...yappari!" the ninja master had thought.

"It's no use, Dan. He's dead now. Yabuki is also dead. The only thing we could do now is rescue Eric-san from the pit they told us." Karen said to him.

"Zeke, search for the pit where Eric-san has fallen into. Once you find him, return to us immediately." the jonin ordered to his eagle.

The white feathered bird then soared over the trees and located the pit. It didn't took a long time for Zeke to find what he had been ordered to search.

"So that means that the pit where Eric-san fell through is in that direction." Dan said to his wife as they headed to the nearby trees.

The two of them arrived at the pit in a nearby cypress and found Eric in the bottom. But before they could approach him, some Iteza warriors attacked the two ninjas. Dan and Karen then immobilized them using fukiya needles laced with a paralyzing poison.

"Fools! You indeed never learn from your mistakes." the kunoichi said to Prozen's soldiers as she ridiculed their stupidity.

The two of them approached Eric, who had been in pit for quite sometime.

"Eric-san, are you alright?" Dan said to the samurai.

"Ughh…. I think I broke my leg." Eric lied to the ninjas.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out." the jonin replied to him.

Dan then descended to the pit and tried to carry Eric on his back when all of a sudden another platoon of soldiers appeared from the meadows and charged towards them.

"We got more company!" the kunoichi said in annoyance to their enemies.

Some soldiers had tried to shot the woman with arrows from the left but the female ninja just evaded them by simply taking a right sidestep. However, she had been suddenly ensnared by a snaring rope hidden underneath the grass.

"What the…?" she shouted as she found herself hanging in a nearby tree.

"Karen, what's wrong?" Dan yelled to his wife when out of the blue, Eric kicked him forcefully as jumped from the ninja's back and stood on his legs.

"Look who are the idiots now!" the traitor samurai said to the jonin as he grinned sarcastically while the rest of Prozen's men surrounded the pit.

"I should have known that this is a trap!" Dan thought to himself.

"Eric-san, why are you doing this?" the ninja questioned to him.

"Why? Because Atsushi-sama has done something very painful to me! And now, I'll do everything in my power to assassinate that son of yours and take your master's daughter as my trophy." Eric mentioned in response.

"Eric, you serpent! Atsushi-sama will surely have you impaled by a spear!" Dan cursed to the disloyal warrior.

"That is…. if he and his family are still the rulers of this estate." the evil samurai replied.

The soldiers had then tied the two ninjas together and bound them temporarily in an imprisoning carriage. However, the two of them were able to use irogome grains send coded messages inside three bottles to their children.

"Zeke, send these to my son and to my father to warn the Lynette family that my wife and have been captured." Dan commanded to their eagle as he shot the bottles towards him using their fukiya blowgun. Some of Prozen's men tried to either capture or kill Zeke but the hasty bird managed to escape unscratched.

"Relax boys. You don't have to tire yourselves with that eagle. I'm sure the Lynette family's ninjas would be powerless now that we have captured their masters." Eric ordered.

In the Byakutakas' village, Van and Maria had seen Zeke flying towards them. The unusual behavior of the eagle, along with the colored grains of rice told them something was very wrong.

"Van, can you bring me the bottles Zeke is carrying to us?" Maria asked to his younger brother.

Van then took the three rice grain containers from the white raptor. However, as soon as he saw the contents of the bottle, the captain-rank chuunin grabbed his ninja-ken and some other weapons he could get on his way.

"Nee-san, warn Grandpa and the rest of the tribe that Dad and Mom had been captured by the enemy. I must go to Atsushi-sama's palace and save his loved ones right away." Van said to his sister as he headed to Saitama prefecture.

While Maria had told their grandparents and their subordinates about the incident, Van was thinking of the feudal family's safety.

"God, please keep my parents, my masters, and my Fiona safe!" Van prayed sincerely in his heart.

Inside the Lynette family's palace, Prozen's soldiers hand tied Atsushi and his wife while the traitor general himself announced to the citizens of Hoshikagami town that he would be their new daimyo. Their troops have been overwhelmed by the traitor general's army. Due to Dan and Karen's capture, most Byakutaka ninjas were uninformed of what had transpirred.

"People of Hoshikagami, from this day onward, the members of the Lynette family are no longer your masters. I, Prozen Gunther-sama, will be your new lord. Anyone who loathes me or rebels against me will be immediately killed." the general said before the public.

"Konichiwa, Atsushi-sama! It's been a long time since you and I have a talk like this." Prozen said to the daimyo. "By the way, don't expect your faithful servants will help you this time. I'm sure Eric-kun have already sent them to a concentration camp and is either torturing them or killing them.

"You mean, that samurai assigned guarding the court's hallways? Is he the one who helped you?" Atsushi asked him as the rebellious samurais constrained their struggle.

"Exactly! In exchange for his help, I would give your youngest daughter to him." Prozen said in retaliation.

"Just as I thought, that samurai can never be trusted!" Kanata yelled to the evil general in defiance.

Prozen then kicked the lad's face in response to his anger.

"You're not in the position to shout at me like that!" Prozen reminded to the boy.

The soldiers began searching inside the palace for Rhys and Fiona. The two sisters got separated in the confusion of the chase.

"What could have happened to Dad, Mom, Kanata nii-sama and Rhys nee-san? I hope they're alright." Fiona thought as tears began to fall from her eyes while running away from Eric's squad.

On the opposite corridor, Rhys was getting exhausted trying to lost her pursuers but to no avail. She had then collapsed on the floor but as she was about to be captured by Prozen's lackeys, a boy with onyx colored hair came between her and blinded the soldiers with metsubishi bombs, buying them enough time to escape.

"Van-san, make sure you would come back alive. I haven't defeated you yet so you must survive this." the boy thought.

"Have I lost them?" Fiona mumbled when all of a sudden, a person hiding in the shadows pulled her from the hallway.

"Who are you? Let go of me!" the princess demanded to the boy cloaked in a hood.

The hooded person then revealed himself to the princess.

"Van, thank God it's you. I thought it was one of those rogue soldiers who are after Me." Fiona said to him in relief.

"Good thing my prayers are immediately answered. I thought that you're already captured." the chuunin retorted to her.

"And good thing you came here. It's time to say your last prayers ninja!" Eric said to him.

"Eric-san, kore wa nani yo?" Fiona asked her pursuer as to the meaning of the events that have just happened.

"Well, let's just say that someone offered my something I could never resist. In exchange for that, I'll just have to eliminate the highest ranking ninjas of your family." the samurai answered to the princess.

"What have you done to my parents?" Van questioned to the rebel.

"I just took them to the Prozen-sama's prison. I'm note sure but I hope my fellows have already dispatched them!" Eric answered to them. "Those two idiots have tried to rescue me, believing I had broken my leg in that pit!" he added laughingly.

"Cursed filth!" Van muttered was about to draw his sword to slash the rebellious samurai with his ninja ken when he Raven called out to him.

"Van-san, this is not the right time to face him. We're totally outnumbered! For now, it's more important to save Rhys-Hime-sama and Fiona-Hime-sama! the onyx haired chuunin reminded to the other shinobi.

Van then nodded in response as he returned the chisa-katana type sword in its' saya. He and Fiona then made a dash at the end of the hallway and knocked the window down. The ninja tightly embraced Fiona as they prepared to jump to the river.

"Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama, ore-tachi wa kanarazu modore wo anata ni tasukete yo!" Van then thought as he vowed to return and save his masters.

"I don't think you could escape me now, ninja!" Eric said as one of his subordinates the shot the two of them with an arrow, causing them to fall in the water.

"Fool! You're supposed to shoot that shinobi only, not kill both of them!" the wicked samurai shouted to his personnel as he stabbed him with his katana.

The rebels then looked out of the window and saw that the river's water was tainted by blood. They assumed that the runaways had been severely injured and drowned. Yet Van and Fiona were perfectly fine. It's just the plank of wood used in the windows that had been shot. The blood came from a dead macaque. The chuunin and his princess emerged out of the water when the coast got clear enough and headed to the Byakutaka tribe's village at the Sawaki forest in Nagano prefecture.

"Van, why did Eric-san do that? I just can't understand." Fiona muttered as she sobbed on her ninja's chest.

"I think he's jealous that you want me, not him. That's the only logical reason I could think based on what he did to me a few days ago." the chuunin responded to her, trying to comfort her at the same time.

"Eric, you son of the devil! I'll ensure you'll die in hell!" Van reflected.

"Van-san, I understand how you feel that Dan-dono and Karen-dono are taken away from you. For now, I'll take Rhys-Hime to my tribe's village. It's safer that way than if the two of them are together." Raven said to his comrade chuunin.

"But Raven-san, would me and Rhys nee-san see each other again?" Fiona asked the shinobi.

"Hai. She could come with me whenever I'll be going here." he answered.

While Van and Raven are rivals when it comes in being the better ninja, they consider each other as very close and trustworthy comrades.

"Arigato, Raven-san! However, I won't stop until I have revenged my father and my mother's deaths!" Van retorted.

Later that evening in the Freiheit family's house….

"Miyagi-sama, I suggest we attack that Prozen's army right now! We have to save Dan-dono and Karen-dono!" Krueger humbly asked to Dan's father.

"It's already too late, Krueger-sensei! Those bastards have killed my parents!" Van said to the council of elite jonins of their tribe.

"Masaka!" Krueger shouted to his student in shock.

"Unless someone in the Lynette family's palace betrayed them." the chuunin riposted to his sensei. "One bastard samurai named Eric tricked Dad and Mom by pretending to be injured." he added.

"Then we should get going!" the jonin said.

"Krueger-san, it's not wise to do that!" Twelve years ago, we managed to defeat them even though they outnumber us but only because Atsushi's men have also helped us. Now that they're defeated, we can't do that. We'll just lose the lives of our men." Miyagi told his son's subordinate.

"Van, I know how painful it is to lost your parents. Being your father's father, it hurts me a lot when you said that he and your mother are now dead." the old ninja said to his grandson as he tried his best to stop his tears from falling out of his eyes.

"But jii-san!" Van argued to the old man.

"If you attack them now, you'll also end up losing your life. If that happens, Prozen would be almost unstoppable." Miyagi said out of love and concern for his grandchild.

"Van, Grandfather is right. think about all those people who love you! Think about Grandfather, Me and most importantly, Fiona-Hime." Maria said to his younger brother as she tried to comfort him. "By the way, I have brought her to my own house so that I could attend to her needs." the kunoichi added.

In the Benitora tribe's village…..

"Huh….where am I?" Rhys said as she regained her consciousness.

"Oh, you're awake, you highness." Raven said to her.

"Who are you?" the princess asked him.

"I'm Chen Joyce, but just call me Raven." the shinobi said to her.

"Well….where is my sister?" she asked the boy.

"Van-san and I have decided to keep you in two different ninja villages. We have assumed that to be safer." he responded. "Anyway, you could come with me whenever I go Freiheit-san's village so that you and your sister could meet." he added.

In that same night, Prozen imposed an order requiring every men aged between 16 and 28 in the Hoshikagami town to serve in his army. Whoever rejects the order would be immediately killed.

* * *

(Sumimasen for taking such a long time to complete this chapter. Ideas just keep popping in and out of my head. See you later in later chapters. Arigato Gozai Mazu.)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Hit and Miss; Help from the Blue Wolf and Yellow Mountain Rose of Niigata

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely borrowed his characters.)

Five years had passed ever since Prozen Gunther had taken over Hoshikagami own. Now, he has conquered almost all of Saitama including Urawa, Ageo and Kumagaya. Every male citizens in the Prozen's territory who were fifteen years old and above had been forced to join his reserve army in the fear of losing the lives of their families.

In Nagano Prefecture's Sawaki forest, a jonin had ambushed and was tormenting three samurai.

"You must be grateful to Fiona-Hime for she made me promise to her not to kill anyone. However, just because I won't kill you don't mean I won't torment you!" the ninja said as he stabbed the Iteza clan's samurai in the shoulders, crippling them for good.

"This is what would happen to any of Prozen's men who ventured within my reaches. And because I won't kill you, it means you can't commit seppuku and you'll die in humiliation." he added.

"Yamete kudasai, Van!" Fiona yelled from the bushes. She was crying as she witnessed the blood of the samurai spill on the ground.

Van then stopped the torment and left the three samurai in that spot. He and the young woman went back to their tree house.

"Sumanai, Hime. It's true that you made me promise not to kill anybody. But how the injustices that they have done to us, to our loved ones and to your citizens? Would you let them oppress people just like that?" Van responded to her.

Van and Fiona have changed a lot in the past five years. Van is now a major-rank, jonin-level ninja. The muscles in his body have developed to be large, well-toned and strong. The hair in the back of his head had grown long that he always tie and make it look like a rope. And even though he was just seventeen years old, he already was the master of the Byakutaka tribe.

Fiona, now she's also seventeen years of age, has become a lovely, young woman. After the sabotage of their personnel in the siege, she has become resentful of violence.

"Van, speaking about our families, I want to know what had happened to Mom, Dad and Kanata nii-sama? If there is only a way to know." Fiona mentioned to the shinobi.

"There is! We can infiltrate the castle by dressing in the same clothes as those fools." he replied to her.

Meanwhile, some of Hardin and her troops who have been assigned to patrol the border of the Sawaki had discovered their crippled Iteza men.

"What happened to the three of you here?" the pink-haired woman asked them.

"We're sorry but a ninja had ambushed us. He said that he'll throw Prozen-sama out his throne and restore the Lynette family back." one of them replied.

"General Hardin, please give us our deaths! That ninja crippled us so that we can't commit seppuku." the three of them begged.

Hardin then disemboweled the three at their request. After that, she returned to Prozen to report about the incident.

"Prozen-sama, another group of samurai you had assigned to guard around the Nagano border had been ambushed by a ninja." she said to her lord.

"Not again! You, Hannah and Kirt had been losing your best lieutenants for about a year now due to those mysterious attacks, you morons!" the wicked man retorted in a hissing voice.

"This time, however, they were able give an important detail about that shinobi. They said that the ninja talked about your downfall and would restore the Lynette family back to power." Hardin riposted, trying to appease him.

"If that's the case, then my hunch is right. It's definitely one those ninjas' children who are doing this!" Eric said to them.

"Explain yourself!'' Hardin demanded.

"Well, you see, five years ago, my prize had been snatched by that monkey. Although everyone assumed that they were dead because they had seen blood spilling in the river, I suspected that they might still be alive since their bodies had not been found by anyone downstream." the samurai general answered.

"So that means…" Prozen said

"Fiona-san and that pesky ninja Freiheit Van might still be alive. They are the only ones whom I can think about would ambush our troops near the Sawaki forest." Eric told to them.

"Prozen-sama, please let me be in charge of hunting those two down. I still haven't claimed the trophy you had promised me." he asked the tyrannical daimyo.

"Very well, so be it! Catch that ninja for me and behead him in front of Atsushi." Prozen ordered as he gave his consent.

"My pleasure!" the samurai responded.

Eric then went on the training venues of the Hoshikagami men forced to serve under Prozen's army.

"Everyone, get yourselves ready! We're going to annihilate a clan of rebels within a few days!" the samurai general ordered in a harsh voice.

The soldiers then obeyed Eric's orders, afraid that their loved ones would be beheaded.

Back at Van and Fiona's tree house….

Hime, if you want to see them, we'll set for Hoshikagami tomorrow." Van replied to his lady.

"But how about the civil guards?" the princess asked in return.

"Don't worry about that. Ninjas such as myself have been trained to fool enemy soldiers without been detected for most of the time." the jonin responded.

A messenger then interfered with their talk as he reported to his masters while they were planning their infiltration.

"Van-dono, one of the beast's generals has decided to stage an assault on the forest borders!" an 11-year old genin told him.

"Melissa, is that general a samurai with dark green eyes and violet-dyed hair?" the jonin asked her.

"Hai." the genin replied as she left.

"What now, Van?" Fiona asked her fiancé.

"I guess I have to destroy him before he destroys us, Hime." the high ninja responded to his girlfriend. "Well then, if you want to know the condition of your family, we'll set forth an hour from now….. that is if you want to." he added.

Fiona then nodded as an answer.

The young jonin and his lady then dressed up in the clothes of Prozen's soldiers felled by Maria's subordinates a few weeks before.

"Nee-san, take in charge of the village for a while. Me and Hime have something important to look for!" Van said to Maria.

"Hai, but be careful. I'm sure that you haven't forgotten what Grandfather had taught you." the kunoichi riposted to her younger brother after she prepared lunch for their sick grandfather.

Van then remembered the lesson he learned from Miyagi five years ago.

Flashback….

Van and Miyagi had been training one afternoon for the boy's final rites before the leadership of the Byakutaka tribe was passed down to him. Van's assault had been countered by his grandfather and the latter hurled him towards a willow tree.

"Van, are you alright?" Miyagi asked his grandson as the then chuunin level ninja was beaten and was lying in the ground.

"You know that I'm not alright!" he yelled at his grandfather as he refused the old man's help.

"Van, my poor grandson, do you know why I have defeated you in our match?" Miyagi asked him.

"Apparently, you are much better that me since you're a lot older." he responded.

"Wrong!" the old jonin mentioned in return.

"Then what!" the frustrated chuunin asked in turn.

"You let your emotions control you! You see, the two of us are equal in our cunningness and skills but you are stronger than your father, who was, in turn, much stronger than me. Yet due to your thirst for revenge against Eric, you have become reckless in our battle." Miyagi responded.

"Do you see the kanji sign written in your vest?" the old man asked again.

"It's the symbol for the word patience." Van answered as he looked upon the sign .

"Right! The sign "nin" must remind you that patience is the very essence of us ninjas. Patience originates from peace. If you don't have peace in your mind, then you'll lack patience, which in turn, will deliver recklessness and defeat upon you." Miyagi told his grandson.

"One more thing. Try to win battles without killing your opponents if you know you can defeat them without using a fatal force." the older ninja added.

"Arigato, jii-san!" Van responded in gratitude to his grandfather.

The jonin then whispered his thanks to his grandfather once more as he recalled one of the greatest virtues a ninja must have.

"What's wrong, Van?" Fiona asked her lover.

"Nothing, its' just that I remember a very important wisdom from my grandpa." he responded.

"Nee-san, tell jii-san not to worry about me. It would make his recovery longer than what we would prefer." the young ninja master has told his sister.

Van and Fiona then headed out to the Yamanashi prefecture. They saw that no one was patrolling the border but the two of them knew that the reason for that was the division of Prozen's men under Eric's wing would assault the Sawaki forest in a few days. They also knew that his and Raven's place would be the first villages to get attacked by the Iteza army, so they sent the Melissa to report that to the Benitora tribe.

"Ikuyo, Hime!" Van whispered to his partner as they went on.

Upon arriving at the edge of the town which once belonged to the Lynette family, Van and Fiona tricked the guards.

"Did General Eric call for us?" the two of them pretended.

"Hai! He said every soldier in his command must get to their barracks right away!" the guards told them.

The jonin and his lady have easily fooled the guards with a simple deception.

"Now, Hime, we'll need to knock out at least two of the guards assigned to the prison." Van whispered to Fiona.

Two of them headed out for the prison. Since Van had a map of the prison, they have no trouble of locating it. Suddenly, three guards walked towards their direction.

"Is it true that General Eric said that Fiona Hime-sama is still alive?" one of them asked his companions.

"I don't know but I'm sure that she'll try to rescue her parents and save us from this bastard's reign." the others said to him.

Van then hit the three of them with needles laced with a mild poison enough to make them fall asleep for a few hours.

"Sumanai, but we have to do this to make sure you won't tell your comrades and for your own safety too." Fiona said as she and her ninja dragged them into a cell and locked them there.

Van and Fiona then searched the prison in hope of finding Atsushi, Isami and Kanata.

"Van, do you think we can find them here? I mean, Prozen could have them locked up in some other dungeon." the princess said to her ninja.

"Be optimistic! I'm sure we'll find them soon enough." the jonin responded to her.

While the couple was searching the prison, Eric walked towards one of the generals he summoned to assist him in his planned assault.

"So how are things going on right now, General Harvey Kirk?" the samurai asked his associate.

"There's nothing that you should worry about, General Eric. Oh yeah, two of our comrades came from the direction of the Sawaki forest. They asked us if you have called for them." Kirk answered.

"Did you say from the Sawaki?" Eric asked him.

"Hai." the other samurai replied.

"I see; they have infiltrated us," he thought. "There is a high possibility my trophy and her shinobi will try to rescue Atsushi's family. In that case, we won't need to launch an offensive to draw them out after all." he further guessed.

"Tell the troops at the guard house to search every square inch of the prison! The enemy had already slipped past us!" the samurai shouted at one of the soldiers.

Back in the prison, Van and Fiona were unaware that they had been discovered when they suddenly came across a familiar person.

"Kanata nii-sama!" Fiona said in excitement as she saw her aniki.

"Fiona….is that you?" the deposed prince asked his sister.

"Hai!" Van-kun and I went here so that we can see you again." the lady said as tears of joy began flowing down her cheeks.

"Kanata-sama, I don't want to interfere with your family affairs but may I ask you where are Atsushi-sama and Isami-sama's cells?" Van asked the prince.

"Go to the fifth cell of the fourth hall in this dungeon's basement. You'll find our parents there." Kanata replied to him as he struggled to get up after a heavy torture a couple of days ago.

Van was about to go to where his higher masters were imprisoned but then he heard the noise which alerted him that they had been discovered.

"I think we should better go now! It looks like our ploy has been foiled!" the jonin told them quietly as he pried open the cell's door with a crowbar.

After Kanata had escaped from his quarters, the three of them made a dash to the exit just fast enough to be ahead of Eric and his men.

"As I've thought! Men, we won't stop until those three have been captured!" the evil samurai ordered to them.

"Hime, Kanata-sama, get ahead of me! I'll try to delay them for as long as I can!" Van yelled to the siblings as they ran in the middle of the town.

"But Van, how about you?" his lady asked him.

"Don't worry about me. I can easily catch up with you in a while." the ninja assured the princess.

Kanata and Fiona then ran in a place where they thought they would lose Eric. Van, meanwhile, bought them enough time to escape. At that moment, he wanted to get his vengeance on the traitorous samurai but he suppressed his emotions as he realized that it wasn't the proper time to exact what he wanted.

"So are you ready to meet your demise, monkey kid!" Eric mocked to Van.

"Don't feel so bad that you have been fooled by the corpse of a dead macaque, horse-face!" the ninja touted him in return.

The samurai then charged towards him with his sword but the jonin hurled some smoke bombs into the ground while releasing his load of tetsubishi, hence causing confusion amongst the generals. Van then stepped on Eric's head as he snatched some of the soldier's firearms and jumped out of the scene.

However, Kirk fired his rifle towards him and it hit his left upper arm.

"No good. This is what Grandpa warned me about." the ninja reflected as he looked at his injury. "Good thing it was shallow." he muttered as he covered his wound with a piece of fabric he tore from his left sleeve.

"Damn, he escaped again!" Eric thought in rage. "Tell the order guards to close all the routes that cross the town's borders. I'm sure they're still inside the town." the samurai ordered his men.

It didn't take long for Van to catch up with Fiona and Kanata as they headed towards the poorly patrolled part of the town nearest to the Sawaki woodlands.

"Hime, Kanata-sama, let's head to that whore house!" the ninja told the deposed daimyo's children.

"Are you a moron, Van-kun?" Kanata replied to him in disbelief.

"I myself really hate to go in a place such as this but right now, we have no other choice than to hide temporarily in this filthy house. This is the last place they're going to think about our whereabouts." the jonin explained to them.

"Why not go to the forest right now?" the former prince asked him.

"If we do that, two ninja villages will be destroyed and countless ninjas will lose their lives." Van retorted. "It's better to trick them into thinking that we're locked inside this town. It doesn't matter if they closed the town's gates. We ninjas have been trained to move from tree to tree in order to fool opponents or escape them." he added.

"Kanata nii-sama, Van-kun is right! The Byakutaka and Benitora ninjas are the last warriors the people believe would liberate them from Prozen. But right now, those tribes's armies are totally outnumbered by Prozen's men by twenty five to one. We can't risk the possibility of letting them launch an assault in the Sawaki." Fiona mentioned to her brother.

"Alright." Kanata sighed as they went inside the red house.

Once they had entered the prostitute house, Van handed to Kanata the riffles and guns he had snatched from the soldiers. But the two of them were shocked by what they saw next.

"Dr. D, I never expected that I would find you flirting around with these witches!" Kanata said to a bald man who was with a half-naked magenta-haired harlot.

The old man had been startled as turned around and saw the noble siblings and their jonin guardian.

"Oh look at the deposed prince. Have you come here to make your sister work as a slut in this house." the magenta-haired woman said to Irvine.

"Leena, show them some respect! The two of them are still the real legitimate heir to this town!" Dr. D said to the whore.

"Why should I? Prozen had deposed them so it means that she can now become a harlot just like me!" the prostitute riposted.

Van was then enraged by what she had said about his lady that he suddenly threw a shuriken at her direction.

"Harlot, the next time you'll say that to Fiona-Hime, I won't hesitate to kill you, hag!" the furious jonin replied to her.

Leena suddenly stopped her arrogance as the she heard the ninja's warning to her.

"This is bad! I have to report these to General Eric right away!" the red house manager said to herself as she went to report about the incident in the whore house.

"Dr. D, it's good to see you after so many years!" Fiona said to the old man.

"Hehe, it's been quite a while since I last saw you sibling together. I still remember the time when I helped your father attend to your mother's needs when she was giving to you and your siblings, Fiona hime-sama!" Dr. D said in response.

"Even though he likes to hang out with prostitutes, he still treated me, Rhys and Fiona as if we were his grandchildren." Kanata said to Van.

"I like Dr. D for serving as a sort of fatherly figure for you and Atsushi-sama. However, I'm disgusted by the harlot he is hanging out with." the jonin replied to the prince.

"It doesn't matter now if he's flirting around with Leena-san or not. I'm sure Dad will be happy to know Dr. D is alive." Fiona mentioned to her fiancé. "Hmmm, Dr. D, do you want to come with us to Van-kun's village? I'm sure you could help us in the coming battle." the princes said to the old craftsman-doctor.

"If this will end up in Prozen being beheaded, then I'll be more than willing to offer my aid!" the old man riposted.

Unknown to them, the prostitution house owner have met General Hannah and her squad some distance away.

"General, the former daimyo's children and their ninja had come to my business place where they are currently threatening of my whores!" the manager reported to the female samurai.

"Don't worry, woman. We'll be there immediately." Hannah answered her.

It hadn't taken long before Hannah's troops, along with Zairin's squad, to reach the whore house where the Lynette siblings and their comrades were.

"Kanata-sama, we better leave now! I think someone tipped them our location." Van said to his master.

The group then started to run towards the back door as fast as they could when Hannah and her lackeys entered the edifice.

"Men, search this whole house thoroughly! We can't afford to let them escape now." the female general ordered her to her soldiers.

"There they are! Zairin shouted as he pointed the direction which Kanata and the others has been heading.

"Hayaku!" Van yelled to his companions as the troops got approached them.

Everybody then rushed towards the Sawaki forest as quickly as they could. Leena, however, tripped on a stone in her way as she made a run to the woods.

"Let me help you." Fiona offered to the harlot as she helped her get up her from her fall but because of that delay she had been hit by a poison-tipped arrow on her ankle.

"Hime, are you alright?" Van asked his fiancée.

"My foot, it..it's hurting very much." the princess riposted to him as she saw the cut inflicted by the projectile.

"Hang on me tight. This could get rough." the ninja told her as he leaped into an oak tree and hurled some light bombs towards the soldiers.

"The light from those will blind them for a couple of minutes." the jonin said to his princess as he jumped from tree to tree in order catch up with the others.

Near the town border, Eric and his men were unable to come in time.

"Shit! You let them escape again!" the samurai said furiously to Hannah and Zairin.

"Settle down, General Eric. I shot Fiona-chan with a poisoned arrow on her foot. Although that poison isn't fatal, it cripples the part of the victim which was hit. Besides here, the nearest place they could get the antidote was in the mountains of Niigata. Hence, we could track them down easily since they are going to be slowed down by one of their comrades." Zairin answered to him.

"In that case, I'll proceed with the offensive on Sawaki." the higher general said in return. "I'll take hundred men with me and kill all of the ninjas who will dare oppose us." he added.

Meanwhile, Van and the others have finally reached the main village of the Byakutaka tribe. There, Fiona's condition started to get worse.

"This is serious. Even though the poison is not deadly, it could leave the region of the body where is applied paralyzed." Dr. D said to Van, Kanata, and Maria.

"Sumanai, Van. Once again, I became a hindrance to you." Fiona called to her shinobi as she lay down in the bed.

"No, Hime. It wasn't your fault. You just show that you're indeed a good leader for your people." the jonin responded as he saw the agony his lady was into. "However, this wouldn't have happened if you haven't come with us in the first place, hag!" Van said furiously to Leena as he turned his head towards the harlot and drew his sword from its scabbard.

The magenta-haired prostitute then took a few steps backed before she stumbled as she felt the ninja was going to kill her but Kanata stepped between Van and Leena.

"Van-kun, this isn't the right time to blame each other for what had happened to Fiona. Just what do you think would happen to your tribe if you have been the one who was hit by that arrow?" the prince said to the jonin as he tried to calm him down.

"Van-sama, I'm sorry for what had happened. Even though I disrespected Fiona hime-sama and Kanata-sama when you came there, she still sacrificed her own safety just to save me. I promise I, Ross Leena, will help you in the rebellion you're going to initiate." the whore said to him as an apology.

"Enough about that. Dr. D, is there an antidote for this poison?" Van asked to the old scientist.

"There is. However, the only place where we could obtain the already prepared form was back in Hoshikagami, unless you're willing to travel to Niigata to collect the herb that ill serve as the basic ingredient of the antidote. I could then prepare the concoction quite easily." Dr. D replied.

"Then I'll go there." the jonin mentioned in return when a genin suddenly came rushing towards him.

"Van-dono, our outpost has been attacked by one of the beast's generals." the boy reported to his master.

"Michael, have Melissa warned the Benitora about the demon Eric?" the ninja commander asked his subordinate.

"Hai. Donnie-san and Raven-san are already fighting them off." Michael answered.

"I'll be right there." Van said.

"Van-dono, me and my men will come along with you. I have ordered my chuunins to bring along some of the rifles we have salvaged from our ambushes." Kruger said to his former student.

"Arigato, sensei! Let's now go." the Byakutaka master said to him as they headed towards their tribe's outpost.

"The last time one of our outposts had been attacked was when Maria was still an infant. Back then, Hiltz of the Yamisasori clan from the Yamagata prefecture invaded Niigata. However, Dan-sama destroyed him and crushed them when he tried to exterminate the uprising of the Aoiroh, Yamabuki and Kuroguma tribes." Kruger remembered.

"Van-dono, I think we should ask the help of the three tribes of Niigata in the battle against Prozen. I'm sure that beast would also try to invade Niigata if he managed to take over here in Nagano." the older jonin said to his master.

"Sensei, that's exactly what I would do even before Dr. D said that the main ingredient of the antidote could be found there." Van said politely to his former teacher.

Upon arriving at the battle scene, Kruger's riflemen chuunins shot Eric's snipers with the firearms they had raided from their ambushes. Although many of Prozen's men have been felled, many of Van's subordinates took hits as well and were gravely injured.

"Sensei, I'll handle these swordsmen while you take care of the injured." Van instructed to Kruger.

"You know, we thank you a lot for the gifts you bring to us every time you visit our home." Van said to eight Iteza men as he slashed them with his sword. "How do you feel now that your weapons turned against you?" the ninja mocked to Eric after he subdued the eight samurai.

"Damn you!" the samurai shouted as he tried to slash him.

"Don't worry, Eric. I won't kill them so that I could enjoy torturing their crippled bodies. But that won't be the same for you." the jonin said as he used his ninja-ken to block the attack.

The ninja and the samurai then battled for several minutes, with neither one gaining an upper hand as the two of them seemed to be equal in strength. However, Eric's men were losing strength and numbers faster than the Byakutaka warriors.

"This is getting bad. Only a few of my soldiers are left uninjured." Eric thought. "Retreat!" he ordered to his remaining men in order to avoid failure.

"Don't misconstrue our withdrawal from our fight tonight. Your tribes are no match against the full power of the Iteza clan." the samurai warned to his sworn enemy as they returned to Hoshikagami.

"Don't shoot the purple-haired samurai. He is my quarry." Van commanded his subordinates as they tried to aim at and shoot Eric and the retreating Iteza clansmen.

However, before Van could chase the person he wants to destroy, his attention was caught by one of the Benitora's Chen brothers. One of them was critically injured by a shrapnel and had lost a lot of blood despite Kruger's best efforts.

"Donnie, don't give up. You said that you're going to prove you're more worthy to be our tribe's next leader than me!" Raven said to his twin as he tried to stop his bleeding.

"I guess I can't do that anymore, Joyce…. Please claim the heir of the Benitora leadership from now on." Donnie replied to him. "Joyce, please promise me you would always love Rhys hime-sama just like I do." Donnie requested to Raven.

"Don't say such stupidity, Donnie! You are not going to die!" Raven yelled at his brother.

"Joyce, my life as a ninja has reached its end. But I don't regret dying as one." the jonin said to his twin as he closed his eyes for the last time to meet his Creator. Raven then began crying as he witnessed the death of his twin.

"Eric, you cursed horse-faced junk! Next time we battle, you'll die in hell!" the Byakutaka master yelled in rage.

"Sumanai, Raven-san. If I had only come earlier, we could have saved Donnie." Van said to his comrade as he tried to comfort him.

"Don't be a fool, Van-san! It wasn't your fault that he was killed. Donnie saved me from being hit by that gunshot." Raven replied to the other jonin as he wiped away his tears. "I'm going to send that samurai to hell." he swore to himself as he thought of Kirk's face.

"All we could do now is to bring Donnie back to your village for a proper burial." Van said to his rival.

Raven and his companions headed back to the Benitora village and informed the villagers about the loss of one of their elite jonins.

"Raven, you don't have to be guilty of what has happened to Donnie. He died fighting as a noble ninja." Rhys said to him in condolence.

"I understand. That's why I'll make sure he's death wouldn't be wasted. I'll kill that samurai." the Benitora jonin responded.

"Van-san, whatever you're planning to do, count my tribe in. We won't let Prozen continue on his insanity." Raven said to his rival.

"Understood. You take care of Kirk. I'll ensure that Eric will die in hell." the other jonin riposted.

After Donnie's coffin was buried, Van and the rest of his tribe returned to their main village.

"Nee-san, take care of Hime for me. I'll get the cure for her poisoning." the young man asked his sister.

"Hai, take care. By the way, are you going to visit the Aoiroh, Yamabuki and Kuroguma for assistance?" Maria said to her brother.

"Hai. I'm sure Ruji and my other friends understand the situation here. They won't let someone like Prozen to overthrow Re Mii's family." Van retorted. "One more thing. Please surround the whole village with traps so that the only way to avoid them is by leaping from tree to tree, which is impossible for them." he instructed further to the kunoichi.

"Van, are you going out again?" Fiona asked her lover.

"Don't worry, Hime. I promise I'll return alive. I'm doing this for your sake." the jonin replied as he held her hands with his.

Van then headed to a remote forest in Niigata in search of the antidote herb. He took Zeke with him along with his father's white wolf and a bluish tiger given to him by Donnie when he was eleven years old.

"Zeke, alert me whenever you spot something suspicious from above." Van commanded to his white eagle.

"Jiku, Caesar, always be on your guard. Who knows if we're being trailed." he said to the wolf and tiger respectively.

Van's voyage took about a day and a quarter before they reached their destination. Upon finding the antidote herbs on mountainside grassland, he collected as much as he could right away. What he never expected was that he would also meet there one of the persons he needed to talk to. The young man sitting on a nearby rock was the heir to the Aoiroh tribe's leadership.

"Van-kun, is that you?" a reddish brown-haired ninja asked the Byakutaka leader in Echigo dialect.

"Ruji! How have you been?" he replied to the other ninja.

"It's been long time since we last saw each other. Melissa once told me that you have already taken over the Byakutaka leadership." the Aoiroh jonin greeted to him. "So what have brought you here?" he asked.

"I came here mainly to gather some of herbs needed to cure Fiona-Hime's poisoning but I'll also ask you something." Van mentioned to Ruji.

"What is it?" the other jonin questioned.

"You already know what happened to Saitama five years ago. One of the Lynette family's samurai defected and allied himself to Prozen, which led to the death of my parents, sabotage of the Lynette family's army and the downfall of Atsushi-sama. We need your tribe's help, along with Yamabuki and Kuroguma's since even when my tribe and Benitora's forces combine, were still outnumbered thirty two to one." the Byakutaka master told him.

"I understand. Even the daimyo here is alarmed by the size of Prozen's army." Ruji answered to Van. "So how many men do you need?" he asked to him.

"I don't know but if we combined the available warriors from our allies' tribes with our own, it would be about five or six or seven of that demon's men for every one of us available ninjas." Van responded.

"Well, I'll send some messengers to Seijuro and Rosso's tribes." Ruji riposted. "Why don't you rest for a while and discuss what you're planning to do later on. You and your pets seemed tired." he offered to him.

"Arigato, Ruji of the blue wolf." his companion replied.

XOXOXOXOXO

(Note: Van referred to Aoiroh when he thanked Ruji in this instance. The name of Ruji's tribe here, Aoiroh, literally means Blue Wolf).


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Gokai, Yurushi o yobi Wakai! Watashi-tachi wa Tagai no Tame ni dake na saseru.

(Misunderstanding, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation! We're Made Only for Each Other)

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was originally authored by Michiro Ueyama. I only borrowed Ueyama-sensei's characters.)

Upon arriving at the Aoiroh's head house, Van and Ruji had discussed their plans to overthrow Prozen. Van then brought along his Zeke, Jiku and Ceasar to give them a well deserved rest.

"Van-san, we only have one shot at this. If we failed to overthrow that beast, then Nagano and Niigata will fall under him as well. Right now, we cannot ask the help of our comrades from Himeji of Hyogo since it would mean crossing the territories currently under Prozen's control." Ruji had mentioned to his friend.

"I know. It's exactly why I asked the help of Kuroguma and Yamabuki tribes as well so that our combined forces would total about eight hundred twenty, just enough to match his six thousand men." the other jonin riposted.

"Don't worry, Van-san. Irvine is just heading to the Kuroguma tribe to tell them to bring some of the bears they have bred specifically for battles. Also, my men will bring some of the wolves we raise here in order to fight off Prozen's horsemen. Those would level the odds." the Aoiroh jonin told the Byakutaka ninja

"So when will you return to Nagano, Van-san?" Ruji had said in addition.

"As soon as Seijuro and Rosso's reinforcements arrive." Van has responded to his friend.

"By the way, Van-san, if the poison used on Fiona Hime-sama is the type which just cripples the part of the body where it was applied, you don't have to bring all those herbs back to your village. Just add the petals of these flowers in her food." Ruji had mentioned to him.

"Nani?" Van had asked his ally.

"They are the flowers of the sidon bush. They're even more effective in combating the effect of the toxin afflicting her than what your doctor had told you to collect." the red-haired ninja had replied.

"Arigato, Ruji-san!" the Byakutaka leader retorted in appreciation.

As the two of them were taking a break, a chuunin has entered the hall and delivered a message to them.

"Ruji-sama, your wife-to-be has arrived just now." the chuunin had reported to his master.

"I see. I guess I have to escort her for a while." the Aoiroh master replied.

"So you're going to be married soon, aren't you?" Van had questioned to his friend.

"Hai, even though I was reluctant about it at first." Ruji responded.

"So who will be that lady?" the Byakutaka leader had asked in return.

"You'll see." the other jonin answered.

While the two ninja leaders were heading toward the main function hall, a green haired, captain-rank kunoichi approached and bowed before them.

"Ohayo, Ruji-sama!" the female ninja greeted to them.

"Arigato, but you don't have to do that, Kotona-san!" Ruji replied to the chuunin.

"Oh, by the way, this is Kotona-san. She has been my apprentice for four and a half years now." Ruji mentioned to his friend.

"Nice to meet you, Kotona-san. I'm Freiheit Van, leader of the Byakutaka tribe." the other ninja master introduced himself to her.

"A pleasure to meet you, Van-dono." Kotona had riposted as she bowed before the higher ninja. "By the way, is it true that you're planning to crush Prozen's forces in a matter of few weeks?" she added.

Van had nodded in response to her question.

"Ruji-sama, please let me join Irvine-san's squad!" the green-haired kunoichi had begged her master.

"We have to take careful preparations first before we attack. We can't do this in a rush." Ruji had replied to his apprentice.

"But if you're going to bring him down, please let me be a part of your plan." Kotona urged to him.

"Hai. We will need every available ninjas in our village to topple that beast." the reddish brown-haired shinobi answered with a slightly annoyed tone.

"I can sense that your subordinate's plea has a serious reason for wanting to join the battle." Van has mentioned as he interrupted the talk between the two other ninjas.

"The truth is…I'm not really after Prozen. Rather, I want to slay that violet-haired samurai who serves as one of his generals." Kotona retorted to the other jonin. "Five years ago, that demon raped and killed my twin sister." she added.

"Does that general have a horse-like face and green eyes?" the Byakutaka leader asked Ruji's apprentice.

"How did you know his exact appearance?" Kotona answered to him.

"He attempted to kill me ever since I was 12." Van had replied. "It seems that samurai under Prozen's command have far lower code of honor than the worst nukenins in Uesugi and Togakure." the high captain-rank ninja had added.

Just as Van and Ruji entered the room where the latter's, fiancée has been, a genin arrived to tell them of the reinforcements they had been waiting.

"Captain Kotona, please tell Van-sama that Seijuro-sama and Rosso-sama's forces would arrive at Nagano by sunset of the day after tomorrow or morning of the third day from now." the boy had reported to his captain.

"Arigato, Nicollo-kun." the kunoichi had riposted.

Inside the room, Van was very much surprised to discover the lady whom his friend has been engaged to.

"Re Mi–Hime?" the Nagano ninja had muttered while bowing before her.

Is that you, Ninroh?" the princess had said softly as she was equally surprised to see Van.

"Hai, Re Mi Hime-sama." Van retorted right away.

"Ninroh?" Ruji asked the other ninja master.

"Ninroh was the nickname given to me by my dad because of my wolf-like appearance and patience. Senko was the one given by my mom due to my tiger-like stealth." Van explained to the Aoiroh ninja.

"I never expected that your parents want Ruji for you, Re Mi Hime-sama." the Byakutaka ninja told the young woman.

"Actually, I was quite reluctant about my engagement to her, Van-san, but over time I realized that I also have feelings for her." Ruji had responded.

"So what brought you here, Van-kun?" Re Mi questioned to the other ninja.

"Re Mi Hime-sama, you already know that Prozen won't stop until he has subdued the whole Honshu under his rule. With the recent fall of Shizuoka under his hands, it's only a matter of time before he set his eyes on our prefectures. I asked the three ninja tribes here in Niigata to help us destroy his forces once and for all." Van had mentioned in response. "Also, I went here to get the antidote for my princess's poisoning." he added.

"What?" the light brown-haired lady snarled.

"She was shot with a poison-laced arrow at her ankle while trying to save one of her subjects." the jonin continued.

"Van-kun, tell me when can I see her again?" Re Mi asked him.

"If we move by tonight or tomorrow morning, we'll be able to reach our main village by morning of the third day from now." Kotona had intervened to the talk of her masters. "I have told the genins I had sent to the Kuroguma and Yamabuki to send reinforcements to Nagano as soon as they could, and they would be able to arrive there at about the same time as us." the emerald-haired chuunin added.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go." Van urged to his comrades.

"Kotona, tell Captain Cloud Bit, Captain Fluegel Naomi and Commander Irvine to gather all the genins under their command. We'll head to Nagano right away." Ruji had ordered to his apprentice.

The kunoichi wasted no time to call her fellow captain-rank chuunins.

"Van-san, please take this bag of sidon bush seeds. They will be very useful in countering most types of toxins." Ruji offered to the other high captain-rank jonin.

"Hai!" the Byakutaka master had riposted in gratitude.

While Van and the Niigata ninjas head back to Nagano, Prozen and his men ravaged the town of Kuyuka in Yamanashi prefecture.

"Damn it! Prozen's army is far larger than what we had anticipated." a blond-haired samurai general thought.

"General Shubaltz, tell your brother and General Homalef to pull back. There is no way we could fend of an army of four thousand with our men decimated." the young daimyo told his subordinate.

"But Rudolph-sama…" the samurai insisted.

"I won't trade the life of my people just for this town." the boy had replied strongly.

Rudolph and his warriors then retreated into the nearby woods. However, they had been cornered by one of Prozen's generals.

"Generals Shubaltz Karl, General Homalef, and Captain Shubaltz Thomas, instead of serving that thirteen year old brat, you should just accept Prozen-sama's offer." the samurai told his former comrades.

"And what if we refuse to sell our souls to that animal, Marx?" Thomas answered sternly.

"Then meet the Creator." Marx shouted as he suddenly slashed Thomas with his katana.

Karl and Rudolph then rushed to the samurai captain's side.

"This is bad!" Karl thought as he pulled his sword out of its casing. "You'll regret this!" he then muttered at the traitorous samurai.

"Marx, let me handle Rudolph and his remaining samurai. I'm sure my dad would be proud of me for taking that boy's head." Prozen's nineteen year old daughter had ordered to her general.

"As you wish, Natalie-sama." Marx replied as he stood back.

Karl and Natalie then battled for about five minutes until Natalie made a deep slash on Karl's right arm, rendering him unable to wield his sword.

"General Shubaltz, if you and your brother have only sided with my father, you and your master wouldn't have to die." the girl said as she raised her sword to kill the samurai.

But before Natalie could kill the young daimyo and his remaining men, two persons jumped from a tree and countered her slash, shoving her off to some distance

"Are you alright, Rudolph-sama?" asked the woman with a violet marking on her face.

Rudolph then nodded in response as she picked up the Shubaltz brothers.

"Viola, use my haori to stop the bleeding of those two samurai and bring them to the Byakutaka's village immediately." the carmine-haired jonin told his partner as he tossed the black garment to her.

"Understood, Rosso." the kunoichi had replied as she dressed the brothers' wounds and leave.

"Instead of battling those two weakened samurai, why don't you try a ninja like myself!" Rosso taunted to Prozen's daughter and her personnel.

"You know, ninjas such as you always get in the way of my dad. That's why he hates ninjas." Natalie snarled at the leader of Kuroguma.

Rosso battled Natalie and Marx until Viola had spirited them away to Van's village. He them temporarily blinded them with some metsubishi to escape when the number of Iteza men are starting to tilt the battle to uncertainty.

"Marx, tell our men to return to Hoshikagami. Our assignment here is done for now." the woman had ordered to her general.

"But Natalie-sama, don't you want to track that ninja?" the samurai asked her in return.

"It is impossible to catch him now. We better take people from this village to our training camp." Prozen's daughter had retorted to him.

A day later, Van and the rest of his comrades had arrived at his village.

"Dr. D, how is Fiona-Hime?" the high-captain-rank jonin asked the old man.

"She has gotten worse in the past five days; she can barely move her left leg as of this morning." the old man replied to the jonin.

"Van, thank God you're safe." Fiona called to her ninja as she intervened in their talk.

"Shhh. Save your strength for now, Hime. I now got the antidote herb for you." Van had replied.

"I don't think the antidote herb's root extract will be enough to counter the effect of the poison properly." Dr. D told Van.

"But if we don't give her the petals of the sidon bush's flower…" the young man told Dr. D.

"Did you say the flowers of the sidon bush?" the scholar asked to him.

Van then nodded in response.

"If that's the case, it would be able to restore Fiona-chan's health back to normal within hours." Dr. had replied.

"Fiona-chan, it's been five years since I last saw you." Re Mi called the young lady's attention.

"Re Mi-chan, I'm so glad to see again!" Fiona had replied as she got up but fell right away.

"Hime, please eat the petals of the sidon flowers. They will cure you from poisoning." Van told his lover as he caught her.

"Arigato, Van-kun. You're always thinking of me, even though I always end up weighing you down." the princess had retorted as she began to eat the petals of the sidon flowers.

"By the way, Van, Rosso-san and Viola-san had arrived yesterday afternoon. They brought the daimyo of Kuyuka town along with his three injured samurai to one of you outposts." Maria told his younger brother.

"So they have started to invade Yamanashi, eh?" Van had thought. "So where are they, nee-san?" he asked his sister.

The kunoichi then led him to where Rudolph, Homalef, Karl, and Thomas were being treated.

"Sensei, are they alright now?" Van had asked to Krueger.

"They're no longer in danger but they would take a while to recover." the older jonin answered to his former student.

"Arigato, Rosso-san, Viola-san. If it hadn't been for the two of you, the three of us would be gone by now." Rudolph said to the carmine-haired jonin.

"You should thank Van-kun for that. If he hadn't asked us to help him in the war he plans to wage against Prozen in a few weeks' time, we wouldn't be able to know that beast had already expanded his territories yet again." the leader of the Kuroguma had riposted.

"You must thank Rosso-sempai, not me, Rudolph-sama." Van humbly replied to the thirteen year-old daimyo. "Right now, we must prepare to take Prozen down when his forces are at their most vulnerable." he added.

"So when will we strike them, Van-kun." Viola asked her fellow shinobi.

"It's best to attack a month from now, during the week of his reign's fifth year celebration." Seijuro intervened.

"Nani?" Van had muttered to his fellow ninja master.

"I know it's quite ironic but it is during the time his army is in full alert when confusion works the best." Irvine said to strengthen Seijuro's point.

"The Aoiroh's master strategist is one of the wisest ninjas in terms of coming up with a battleplan." Ruji intervened to their talk.

"So how do you plan to dissolve an army of six thousand, Irvine-sempai?" Van had asked to Ruji's chief planner.

"By making them fight amongst themselves. We'll disguise ourselves as one of them, capture his generals' loved ones and putting them in the houses of his other men in dismal conditions so that they would think they're taking hostages from members of one another's households." Seijuro answered.

"But one of Prozen's generals already knows me. How can I confuse them?" the Byakutaka leader mentioned.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they have never seen or heard of us before. Leave that part to us." Ruji had assured his friend. "Besides, don't let one disguise mistake upset you fooling capabilities." the Aoiroh master has responded.

"Sou da ro!" Van had replied as he regained in his ability to disguise himself.

"The safest way to fool them is to pretend as merchants who would want to take part on the celebration." Irvine told them.

Rudolph and his men then intervened as Van and the other ninja masters were discussing their plan for rebellion.

"Minna-san, let us join in your plan to crush Prozen." the young daimyo requested to the ninja masters

"But how would you capture their confidence?" Van continued to ask.

"We'll act as a decoy to make an illusion that your fellow ninjas are innocent." Rudolph had said in intervention. "I'll have one of my samurai feign his betrayal so that you could enter Hoshikagami without being detected." the young daimyo had added.

"But what if he executes you, Rudolph-sama?" Thomas said out of concern for his master.

"He won't. That beast will use Rudolph-sama to lure me there?" Van had replied.

"Aside from Ruji-kun, Irvine-sempai, Rudolph-sama and Thomas-san, who else will sabotage them?" Seijuro had questioned to his comrades.

"We'll send the prostitute who nearly crippled my princess." the Byakutaka leader had riposted as he glared at Leena.

"So it's settled. I'll start preparing our forces for the coming battle." Rosso said as headed to the main village's forge.

"Rudolph-sama, please come with us. This village is just a puppet meant to confuse our enemies." a seventeen year-old, captain-rank female chuunin said to the daimyo and his two men as she began to carry the boy on her back.

"Arigato, captain." Rudolph had answered to the orange-haired kunoichi.

"Rudolph-sama, please call me Catherine." she replied to him as she smiled back at them.

"So how long have you been a ninja?" Karl had asked Catherine.

"For a decade now. I have been personally trained by Maria-san, Van-sama's older sister."

"So you must have been subjected a very harsh training." Thomas commented to her.

"Only as hard as the training of a samurai of your level. I mostly practice medicine." Catherine answered, with her orange eyes meeting Thomas' gaze.

"What do you mean by that? I'm a clumsy samurai?" the blond man replied to her.

"No. Sorry if I unintentionally offended you. I'm just saying that." the persimmon-eyed kunoichi had retorted to him. "This should accelerate your healing." she mentioned as she applied a herbal ointment to his cuts.

"You know Catherine, you seem to be strong yet gentle towards those in need." Thomas then complimented to her actions.

the kunoichi them blushed in reaction to what the samurai had told her.

Viola then helped Catherine to move the three of them to Van's main village as they were keenly aware that Prozen's men will attack this particular outpost within a few days.

"Good thing you have four other villages asides from this one." Viola said to her fellow kunoichi.

"It's been the practice of the Togakure ninjas such as us and Benitora to build numerous villages in order to lure them away from our main ones." Catherine replied to Viola.

"Speaking of which, aren't you from the ninja tribe that resides in the town of Narumi in Aichi prefecture?" Viola has asked in return.

"Hai. I am a member of the Mikankujira tribe, a close friend of the Byakutaka tribe. I came here in order to become an expert medic ninja since there are only very few of us in our tribe." the lower-ranked kunoichi had retorted as they moved their patients to a safer location.

Upon arrival at the main village, Rudolph, Karl and Thomas were brought to Van's home. There, the three of them have been given a much-needed meal topped with petals from the sidon bush's flower just in case they have been poisoned by Prozen's child.

"Why are there flower petals in our rice?" Thomas complained to the residents.

"They will quickly replenish your energy, Thomas-san." Fiona told the captain-rank samurai as she knelt, apparently having recovered enough strength to walk.

"Is that you, Fiona hime-sama?" Thomas asked the young lady as he blushed.

"Hai. Van-kun had rescued me and my aniki from Prozen." the princess had replied to her.

Rudolph and his personnel went to sleep after dinner. Five days later, Fiona had completely recovered her full strength. And so too Rudolph and his men.

"Catherine-san." Fiona called to Maria's subordinate.

"Nani." the chuunin responded.

"Catherine-san, do you want to fly kites today?" the princess asked to her.

"If that's your wish." she had replied to her master.

"Call Re Mi so that she may join us." Fiona told the kunoichi.

She, along with the three of them, Catherine and Re Mi went to a clearing to fly some kites.

Rudolph, Thomas, and Karl noticed the three ladies' eagerness to play in their spare time. Homalef on the other hand have not yet fully recovered at that time so he was still unable to join his comrades.

"Nii-san, you know, I feel quite conflicted within these past few days?" Thomas brought to Karl.

"Is it about our defeat? Don't worry about it. The ninjas here will help us defeat Prozen." the older samurai told his younger brother.

"No, not that. It's just, I don't know whom between Fiona-hime and Catherine-san I like more." Thomas had responded but realized that he should not have replied that sudden.

"Then better question yourself whom you think you love more before making any moves." Karl told to him.

"So how are you now, Fiona hime-sama?" Thomas asked the blond lady as he turned his attention to them.

"I'm feeling great. It's just that I wish my dad and my mom are also here flying kites in a windy place such as here in Sawaki forest." she had replied to he samurai.

"Don't worry, Fiona-dono. I'm sure Van's plan will succeed." Re Mi assured to her fellow princess.

The wind then picked up speed, making the princess lose her balance. However, Thomas was able to catch her.

"Are you alright?" Thomas asked her.

"Hai." the princess had retorted.

Van then suddenly came and saw that Thomas was hugging her.

"Hime?" the jonin called to her.

"Van-kun, matte! This is not what you think." Fiona replied in return but her ninja ran away as fast as he could.

"Van-san shouldn't have run away like that since Captain Thomas had not done anything wrong to Fiona-dono." Rudolph said.

"Unless you take into account that my otohtoh likes her." Karl had answered.

Catherine was quite shocked by what she had heard, apparently expecting Thomas to see her more than just a friend. However, she kept her composure, not wanting to complicate things further.

"You should also consider that Van-sama loves Fiona hime-sama with all his heart and mind so he would naturally feel jealous upon seeing that." she said in continuation to the boy daimyo. "But right now, his mind is too confused with what he had seen. We should let him cool down before telling him what has really happened." the orange-haired kunoichi added.

"Doushite, Hime, doushiite?" the ninja master thought.

"Van-kun, Van-kun!" Fiona called out to him as she ran after her ninja as fast as she could.

"Muda, Fiona hime-sama." Catherine told her master as she caught up to her, with the tone of her voice reflecting the fact that it's no good to force herself to him at that moment.

Van then arrived to the main village, apparently upset by what he had seen.

"Van, what's wrong?" Maria asked her younger brother.

"Urusai! This doesn't concern you, nee-san!" the jonin replied to his sister in an enraged tone.

The princess continued to follow him, wanting to apologize for the event.

"Van-kun, I have to tell you something." Fiona called to him.

"What's the use? I know you already broke our relationship." Van said as he walked away from her.

"Fiona-dono, we'll talk to him later. Right now, he's too baffled, just like what Catherine-san had said." Re Mi told the other princess.

For several days, Van has avoided seeing Fiona, with the latter trying to approach him through all that time. Two weeks later, on a Friday afternoon, Re Mi and Catherine approached the ninja master.

"Ninroh, how long will you keep your distance from Fiona-dono?" Re Mi asked the Byakutaka leader.

"I have released her from our relationship. She is free to choose the person whom she will love." Van had replied to the brown-haired princess in a sorrowful tone.

Re Mi then slapped him with full force for his response.

"If you really love her, then you should never let her go since she also loves you will all her heart and mind. You didn't even think about asking her about what had truly transpired there two weeks ago!" the princess replied sternly to the ninja.

"Van-sama, the reason why Fiona hime-sama was embraced by Thomas was because she had lost her balance when she was flying her kite with Re Mi hime-sama due to strong winds." Catherine told her master.

"Really?" Van had asked to her sister's protégé.

"Hai!" Re Mi assured to him. "In the past, Ruji and I had been in a similar situation when he was training Kotona. That incident has made me wiser since we reconciled." she added.

Later that night, Fiona came to Van's house to apologize.

"Van-kun…I'm very sorry for what had happened there several days ago. If only I had been more careful back then, I wouldn't have lost my balance and fall on Thomas's arms." the blond-haired lady called to him.

Van remained silent to what she had mentioned.

"Van-kun, I'll do anything you want me to do for you! If I must sacrifice my own virginity to you in order for you to forgive me, I'll be more than willing to do it!" Fiona said to him.

"Yamero! You don't have to go to that length just to apologize for what had happened. Re Mi hime-sma and Catherine-san told me everything that had happened. I now know it's just an accident so I have already forgiven you." Van had calmly retorted to her as he smiled and put her haori back. Fiona was left speechless for a couple of minutes.

"Arigato, Senko!" Fiona responded when she was finally able to process her thoughts well enough, calling him with one of his two nicknames as Van wept her tears from her eyes.

"But do you like Thomas-san too, hime?" the ninja master asked his lady in return.

"Van-kun, you're the only shounen I love like this. You already know that." the princess had riposted with truth reflected in her eyes.

From a distance, Thomas heard their conversation.

"I guess I have no other choice than to accept that I'll never have Fiona hime-sama." the captain-rank samurai thought.

Inside the cottage, Van and Fiona continue their little talk.

"But Van-kun, are you sure you don't want to do it with me now?" Fiona had asked him.

"It would be better for both of us to remain virgin until after our wedding." Van had answered. "But for now, we should start penetrating Prozen's stronghold." he added.

"But you're wanted there, isn't it?" the young lady had mentioned out of concern for him.

"Ruji-san, Irvine-sempai, will masquerade as merchants; I will masquerade as a gardener; Seijuro-san and Raven-san will make it appear that Prozen's generals are hostaging members of one another's households while Thomas-san and Rosso-sempai will trick them into believing that he had betray Rudolph-sama. After that, it would be that pink-haired intercourse giver's turn to signal the time to strike." the Shirotaka master assured to his lover.

"Will you come along with them?" Fiona asked to him.

"Hai. While Ruji-san will sell takoyaki, we'll put written messages inside the meals bought by ordinary citizens to rekindle their resolve against Prozen." the ninja answered to her.

The next day, the five ninjas headed to Hoshikagami town. Van knew that he was wanted there, so he had set down his crown-like usual hair style and released the hair bundle that had been tied in twine-like manner. He had also covered his left eye with a black eye patch to mask his facial mark.

"Van, you sure look like a hermit now." Thomas has taken note to his appearance.

"I know. Since the day my parents perished, I have kept the hair on the back of my head growing like this. I'll only cut my hair short after I've sliced Eric to shreds." the ninja master has replied to the samurai.

"Ikuyo, Van-san." Irvine urged to his fellow ninjas as they headed to Fina's town.

At Hoshikagami, the Iteza clan are busy preparing for their celebration of taking over the town about five years earlier. The ninja masters took about forty minutes before they reached the northwest gate.

"What are your purpose for going here?" one of the Iteza soldiers asked to Irvine.

"We are going to sell Niigata carp and ramen here for for this coming festival. I'm sure some of you have already tasted our land's produce." the Aoiroh's adjutant master ninja had responded.

"Can we see you permit?" the soldier insisted to them.

Irvine and Ruji were taken by the soldier's demands quite by surprise as they did not anticipate that request letters are required by merchants in order to do business there. As their minds are starting to panic, Van quickly handed them a forged merchant's permit.

"Alright, you may enter now." the guards told them.

The Nagano and Niigata ninjas quite narrowly avoided arousing the suspicions of the guards as they enter the town.

"Arigato, Van-san. That's quick thinking." Seijuro commented to the Byakutaka master.

"Good thing my nee-san knows how to forge letters. She is the one we must thank later." Van had riposted to the Yamabuki master.

"It's only a week before the fifth conquest anniversary, Dad." Natalie said to her father.

"And it won't be long before Yamanashi and perhaps Nagano will be ours" Prozen replied to his daughter. "As my only heir, I want you to continue the Iteza clan's rule for the years to come." he added.

Natalie then commented that number of traders in Hoshikagami had nearly doubled in the past few days as she mistook Ruji's party as another group of merchants.

"Dad, a lot of merchants are already coming here." the seventeen-year old samurai said to her father.

"This they see us as a very powerful clan. However, I'm keenly aware that some rebels may start skirmishes, so our samurai generals and their men are always on patrol." he said in response to his daughter.

Upon reaching their intended hideout, the Niigata and Nagano shinobi, save for Raven, went on to the next phase of their plans.

"Are you alright, Van-san?" Ruji had asked to his fellow ninja master.

"Hai" the Byakutaka leader had retorted as he changed their disguises inside the house they had rented.

"So, shall we start marauding them?" Van asked his comrades as he wore applied a black paint in his right cheek and styled down the hair in front of his forehead while taking the disguise of a gardener. Ruji's protege, Bit, then meet Raven at the second hideout with the latter giving instructions to him on what he must do.

"Bit-san, keep your cool. If you discover any ninjas working for Prozen, destroy them right away." Raven told his partner's subordinate.

"Hai." the blond-haired, captain-ranked chuunin replied as he went on his way to gather intelligence.

From a distance, Eric and Prozen's other generals headed to the garden's main pavilion.

"Eric, do you think Atsushi's ninjas will attack us any time soon?" Hardin asked to the general.

"Possible. In any case, I already paid some ninjas from Nara to help us patrol the town." the violet-haired samurai answered to his fellow general.

"Are you sure they would help us in capturing spies?" General Stinger asked in turn.

"Of course. I have chosen them personally." Eric answered.

From his vantage point, Bit overheard what the generals had been discussing.

"Damn it! I must find those ninjas if our plan is to succeed." the captain-rank chuunin thought.

XOXOXOXOXO

After several months, I finally finished Chapter Six. By the way, Van's nicknames here in this fanfic, "Ninroh" and "Senko", mean "patient wolf" and "flash tiger", respectively. The name of Van's wolf, "Jiku" is the Japanese pronunciation of Zeke, while his tiger's name, "Caesar", is the name of his Blade Liger (in the manga). This are puns in my part since in the manga, Van first piloted a Command Wolf before he piloted his shield liger and "Caesar" is the name of his Liger. Also, I made an error on Chapter five. At that time, I have no clear subdivisions for each level of ninjas. From this point onward, the ninja ranks for the succeeding chapters are (from lowest to highest):

XOXOXOXOXO

Novice

Genin(Scout Ninja):

Venturer

Lieutenant

Chuunin(Middle Ninja):

Sub-Captain

Captain

Jonin(Major Ninja):

High/Head Assistant-Captain

High/Head Captain

Master(Highest Jonin)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Anti-surveillance

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was originally authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely borrowed Ueyama-sensei's chapters. Also, this is one of the most brutal chapters I'm going to write in this fanfic.)

After hearing the conversation of the samurai generals, Bit had immediately headed back to his superiors' headquarters and reported what he had discovered.

"Van-sama, General Eric has hired ninjas to watch out for us." the blond shinobi told the high captain-rank jonin.

"How many of them does he have at his disposal?" Van questioned to Bit.

"He did not specify. Sorry for that" the chuunin had answered.

"Don't worry. I'll handle that personally." the ninja master commanded to his friend's subordinate.

"Would you like me to kill them one by one, Van-sama?" the captain-rank chuunin asked him.

"If we do that, Horse Face will become more suspicious. The best thing to do is to frame up those ninjas as their enemies' spies." the jonin had responded wisely.

"How do you plan to know who those ninjas are?" Bit continued.

"Go back to the village and tell the pink-haired harlot to come here right away. She will be able to do it." Van ordered to Bit.

"Van-san, are you sure Rosso-sempai, Rudolph-sama, Thomas-san and Leena-san have to come here now?" Ruji asked to his friend.

"Aho ga, Van-san is right. We must destroy them as soon as we can." Raven answered to his fellow ninja master.

"As of this time, we should keep our guard against those ninjas. Most likely, that general had hired them from Nara and/or Gifu, as many of the shinobi tribes from that area are enemies of our Aichi and Himeji comrades." Irvine had mentioned in compliment to Raven.

"So where will we keep those bastards once we have caught them?" Seijuro questioned to his friends.

"No worries. I have rented four other houses earlier this morning in order to destroy any trail me might have left. We'll imprison them here, at the house near the northeast gate of the riflemen's target range." Raven had riposted to the Yamabuki tribe's leader as he opened the map of Hoshikagami, which showed them the location of their other headquarters in the town.

"Well then, I'm leaving. I'll hunt them myself. Michael, Melissa, ikuyo!" Van told his comrades as he and his students resumed their manhunt.

"I'll join you." Ruji and Irvine voluntered.

The three ninja masters then left Seijuro and Raven at their hideout while they went on their ways to track down the Nara shinobi.

At Prozen's military barracks' Eric, Kirt and Siefers gathered the shinobi they had hired against the Nagano and Niigata ninjas.

"I want you watch out for a ninja tribe leaders who has shadow black hair style in a crown-like manner." the green-eyed samurai told them.

"You mean you want us to see if Senko entered the town again?" they asked the samurai.

"Flash Tiger?" Kirt asked to them.

"Don't be confused, General Kirt. Ninjas often use an alias to conceal who they really are, so it's possible those two ninjas' son goes by the alias of Flash Tiger." Eric told his fellow samurai. "Exactly." he said as he returned his focus to the shinobi from Nara.

While the two of them were talking, Van secretly arrived and started to eavesdrop on them right away while pretending to be trimming the bonsai at a nearby wall. He had commanded Michael to watch their surroundings in order to prevent other people from becoming suspicious while Melissa was sent to the outpost town for intelligence exchange.

"As soon as Rosso-sama arrives, I must tell Leena-san to intoxicate one of those three in order to squeeze out the identities of those ninjas." the lieutenant-ranked male genin thought as she continued to trim braches off from a maiden hair tree bonsai while Eric, Siefers, Kirt and their ninjas went their own ways.

"That's not yet necessary, Michael-kun. Let's investigate further." the jonin told to his protege.

"By their Kansai accent, they seem to be indeed from Nara." the genin said.

"Undenibly." Van had riposted.

Bit arrived on the Byakutaka's outpost settlements to find out if the second wave of infiltrators had already prepared and to tell them of the urgency of their current situation.

"So how did it went, Cloud Bit-taichoh?" Melissa asked to the higher ranking shinobi.

"Are Rudolph-sama, Thomas-san, Leena-san and Rosso-sama ready now?" the captain-rank chuunin had asked the lieutenant-rank genin.

"Since yesterday." the eleven-year old girl replied.

"Good! Van-sama and the others have called for them to go there right now. Our enemy has ninjas patrolling the town." the blond ninja told him.

"Did you say Prozen has ninjas under his command?" Rosso has overheard the message.

"Hai. Not sure how many of them from Nara, Rosso-sama." Bit had replied to the Kuroguma master.

"If we are to go there now, I would be best if Rudolph-sama, Thomas-san and me would arrive at least three hours before Leena-san will enter the town. That way, those ninjas won't suspect a thing." the carmine-haired jonin replied.

"Ikuze, Rudolph-sama, Thomas-san. Leena-san, go there at least three hours after we have arrived." Rosso told his comrades.

"Rudolph-sama, are you sure you want to do this?" Thomas asked with concern to his master.

"Of course. This adds credibility to the deception." the boy daimyo answered to his personal samurai.

"So how do they plan to wipe away those shinobi?" Rosso had asked to Bit."

"Raven-sama told me that we should just frame them up rather than killing them, with Leena-san the one getting the information concerning those ninjas' identities and whereabouts." the chuunin retorted to him.

"Why do I always have to miss the excitement?" Leena complained to the ninjas.

"Because you'll be the one who could most easily get the vital information without being caught, Ross-san." Bit answered to the prostitute.

"From whom among them should I get that information?" she continued to bug them.

"Melissa-chan will tell you about it after Rosso orders her to return here." the blond riposted.

A few moments later, Rudolph and his men headed to Fiona's old town. As they are crossing their way to Hoshikagami, one of Eric's ninjas unsuspectingly revealed his presence in one of the palace ground's gardens by accidentally dropping a shuriken that Van had immediately noticed.

"Sir, may I ask a favor from you?" the Nagano ninja asked the other shinobi as he approached him.

"What is it? Make it quick." the Nara ninja had demanded to him in return.

"Sir, it's been a day and a half since I had my last meal. Can I ask you to buy me a small bowl of ramen?" the Byakutaka master has replied as he acted as if he's in great hunger.

"Alright, but just one small bowl." the Nara ninja retorted.

Van then secretly signalled Michael to take a small bottle that contained colored rice grains as a message for Irvine.

Michael then went ahead of Van and the Nara shinobi to deliver his message to Irvine. Upon seeing the contents of the bottle, Irvine then immediately prepared a paralyzing poison to be added to the Nara shinobi's ramen. Van meanwhile guided his target towards their trap location.

Upon arriving at Irvine's ramen tent, the Nara ninja bought a small bowl for Van but was served with an additional bowl.

"Are you sure you're giving us two for the same price?" the enemy shinobi asked

"Hai. This way, I'll be able to recover my capital by sheer number of customers." the grey-haired jonin had responded.

As Van and the enemy ninja ate the ramen, the latter began to feel paralysis and sleepiness setting in his body.

"Nani ga..?" the Nara ninja said before passing out.

"Ruji-san, Raven-san, we got one." Van called out to the other ninja masters.

The Aoiroh master and the Benitora master then hid the enemy shinobi inside a barrel underneath their cart's koi pool.

At one of the hideouts, Seijuro had interrogated the enemy shinobi. At first the Nara shinobi refused to tell about the other enemy ninjas but after several hours of torture and mind games, he finally got what they're after.

"How many of them were here?" Ruji asked.

"Only four more to go. But be careful. Those are jonins like us. " the Yamabuki master told to his fellow ninja master.

"Then we must subdue the remaining four as soon as we could before Horse Face suspect something's off." Van had replied to Raven.

"So what are we going to do to him?"Irvine asked in response.

"Keep his fingers and toes bound tightly with ropes while his feet will be tied with heavy rocks. Michael, keep watch over him and stab one of his eyes everytime he attempts to struggle free but don't kill him." Van ordered.

"Friends, listen carefully. He told me that the other ninjas are stationed the art gallery, the hospital, and the central park, and the treasury.. They dress almost exactly like the local folks except all three of them wear silvery green haori with the kanji signs for ghost, wall, moon, and sheep, and the color of all three symbols is dark blue inside a purple triangle." Seijuro briefed to his comrades.

"By the way, it would be better to frame up those ninjas than to kill them since that would ensure that they wouldn't be suspecting us of fouling them.: Raven mentioned to the other ninja masters.

"How?" Ruji asked.

"By making it appear that Prozen's daughter had been raped." the Benitora master had answered.

"What do you mean that you'll make it appear to Prozen that his daughter had been raped?" Van had inquired to his comrade.

"You'll see, Van-san. Seijuro-sempai will force those bastards to torment Prozen's daughter. I'm sure even Kanata-sama will find that very entertaining." Raven had riposted to him as he transferred the first their prisoner to the third house they had rented.

"Isn't that a little too much?" the Byakutaka master asked to him.

"That pales in comparison to what they had done to my twin Donnie. I won't stop until Donnie's death is avenged." the Benitora leader answered to his fellow ninja master.

At the same time, Rosso, Rudolph, Thomas and Bit, who were in disguises, arrived to the cottage to discuss the plan for the feigned betrayal and Raven's plan to have Prozen's daughter harassed by Eric's men."

"Bit-san, tell the hag whom Fiona hime-sama had saved that she is no longer necessary to find out the enemy ninjas. Rather, instruct her to steal expensive items from the homes of Prozen's generals and kidnap the relatives of those samurai in order to frame them." Van had commanded to Ruji's subordinate.

"Also, after telling that woman what she must do, please kidnap Prozen's daughter for me. We will force those ninjas under that violet-haired samurai to rape that beast's only child." Raven added.

Bit then nodded in response and went to Leena, who has been hiding in the underground chamber of an abandoned logger's cottage at the edge of Sawaki forest. Rudolph, Rosso and Thomas also left Van and Raven as soon as the two ninja masters had cleared everything to their comrades. The three of them moved to another abandoned cottage to remove the clothes of Prozen's soldiers and wear another set of apparel to fool Prozen about Rosso and Thomas' false betrayal.

"Thomas-san, do I look now like I have been tortured?" Rudolph had asked to his samurai as he referred to the bruises the young daimyo had inflicted to himself.

"Rudolph-sama, you definitely got tortured just by your appearance alone." Thomas answered frankly to his master.

"Alright then. Prozen would be glad to see you imprisoned in one of his dungeons, unaware that he is being tricked." Rosso told the two of them as they headed to the palace.

Upon reaching the logger's cottage, Bit called out to Leena to open the door for him in order to inform her of the change in command.

"Ross-san, there is a change of plan. Van-sama and the others already knew who those ninjas are, so he instead orders you to distract Prozen's generals to enable us to kidnap Prozen's daughter." the blond-haired shinobi told to Leena.

"Wakatta!" the pink-haired prostitute had riposted.

As soon as Bit has delivered his message, he left in order to trail Natalie. Natalie on the other hand, was with her father, welcoming Rosso and Thomas, who were deceiving them by pretending to betray Rudolph.

"You bastard! I thought that I could trust you like your brother! I was wrong!" Rudolph had yelled as an act of deception.

"Watch yourself, boy! You are no longer a daimyo!" Thomas had retorted to Rudolph as a part of their ploy.

"I never thought that the reason you fought the two of us was for you to capture that brat just four yourselves." Natalie told to Rosso and Thomas.

"If we revealed to you that was our plan, you would have taken all the glory for yourself." he answered to the treacherous daimyo's daughter.

"Watch yourself too, samurai. We are in front of his majesty, Prozen-sama!" Rosso said to Thomas in a realistic acting.

"I must admit that what you have done is excellent. I never expected that a ninja would ally himself to us." Prozen said to his daughter. "You may claim your reward after you have thrown him into the cell where Atsushi and his wife are imprisoned." he ordered to Rudolph's men.

"Aho! You bit our bait." Thomas muttered in his mind.

At the dungeon, four halls away from where Irvine was previously imprisoned, Thomas and Rosso locked Rudolph in the same cell Fiona's parents had been imprisoned for nearly five years.

"Is that you, Atsushi-dono, Isami-dono?" Rudolph asked to the two prisoners.

"Hai. How about you? You must be Sandaime Zeppelin Rudolph-dono, isn't it?" the deposed daimyo asked to him in return.

"Will Prozen's tyranny never end?" Isami had intervened to the two.

"Don't say that, Isami-dono. I'm sure Van-san and our friends will successfully depose him from power and return that authority to you, where this town really belongs." Rudolph assured to them.

"What do you mean?" Atsushi had asked his fellow daimyo.

"Next week, the Nagano and Niigata ninjas will attack Prozen's troops with their full force. But right now, they are busy turning that demon's generals against one another while winning your people's resolve against Prozen to destabilize his army." Rudolph told them.

As the three of them are discussing the battle that would ensue within a few days, some of the guards were discussing their opinions about Kanata and his siblings' condition.

"I wish Kanata-sama will return one day and depose Prozen. I'm sick of calling him Prozen-sama." one of the guards mentioned to her comrades.

"You're not the only one who wants that to happen. Almost everyone here in this town hopes that an army of ninjas will crush Prozen once and for all." the others had responded.

"Jus wait a little longer. In just a few days, the reign of the Iteza clan will meet its demise in the hands of ninjas." Rosso thought as he overheard the soldiers' conversation.

"Rosso-san, it heard that almost all citizens of Hoshikagami want Prozen's rule to end soon. I think they're expecting the ninja troops led by Van's father to depose Prozen." Rudolph called to his attention.

"Rudolph-dono, you mean these soldiers who threw you here are your men?" Atsushi asked the thirteen year-old boy.

"Hai. They just feigned their betrayal to me. And one with red hair is a ninja." the boy daimyo had answered directly to Fiona's father.

"Speaking about Van-kun's parents, does your ninja know him?" Isami asked the boy.

Rudolph then nodded in response.

"In that case, he must tell Van-kun that his parents are still alive. They are just imprisoned in the most secluded cell in this prison." Isami told to Rosso.

"Hai, Isami-sama!" the red-haired jonin had riposted to Fiona's mother.

Outside the dungeon, Raven, Seijuro, and Van has successfully captured the respective ninjas they had planned to hunt down since the two were at the time patrolling portions of the town where only very few people pass by; hence their fights were disregarded by the occasional passerby. However, because Ruji's target was monitoring the central park, he required the Melissa to act as a decoy in order to lure the said ninja to more isolated part of the area.

"Just like what General Eric had predicted! Senko and his men will try to strike the town." the Kusunoki-style Nara shinobi thought as he chased Van's genin towards a secluded alley.

"That's right! Because of the way you acted, you have shown that horse-faced samurai is both right and wrong." Melissa had thought as she kept going with Ruji behind the two of them.

Melissa pretended as if she had tripped off a stone and fell to the ground, letting herself be captured by Eric's soldier.

"You have been sent by your master, Senko, to spy in here, isn't it?" the Nara warrior asked to the eleven-year old kunoichi.

"And you easily revealed yourself to as a ninja just because I yelled that she is a genin who has stolen some of Georg's expensive decorations." Ruji had mentioned to the enemy shinobi as he hit him with a hammer on his head to render him unconscious.

"Ruji-sama, that hammer you had brought to repair the sake barrel sure comes handy, isn't it?" Melissa called on her superior's attention.

"Arigato, Melissa-chan! I wouldn't have been able to capture this one without you help." Ruji told the lower ninja as he placed the hammer back inside one of his secret pockets..

"You don't have to thank me for that, Ruji-sama. When you yelled to everyone that a ninja has stolen the porcelain sculptures General Georg had ordered you to give to General Hardin, this fool immediately revealed that he is also a shinobi just like us through his movements." the lieutenant-ranked genin had replied to his master.

"Tell me, when did you get your hands on Georg's belongings?" the red brown-haired jonin asked Van's ninja.

"A few minutes before we planned to fool this Kusunoki-style shinobi from Nara, Leena-san had stolen some of the said general's belongings. She then gave these porcelain sculptures to me so that we may start to turn Prozen's generals against themselves." Melissa had retorted to Ruji.

"I didn't expect that a prostitute like Ross-san would be very adept at robbery." the Aoiroh master had replied.

A few seconds later, Seijuro and the others came to where their comrades were to tell them that they had successfully captured Eric's ninjas.

"Alright. Let's head back to the therapy house so that we may proceed with the plan of having them harass Prozen's daughter." Seijuro told his friends.

"Who will capture the girl in the first place, Seijuro-sama?" Melissa asked to the Yamabuki tribe's master, apparently surprised at what she has heard.

"That job belongs to Bit. To ensure success, I have also sent two of the captains from my tribe to aid him." the ash white-haired jonin had retorted to her.

"You mean Captain Hunter Brad, Captain Fluegel Naomi, and Captain Hemeros Jamie?" she continued.

"Exactly." Seijuro answered to her.

With the daylight fading, the team headed back to their headquarters. To destroy any clues which might have been left for Prozen's soldiers to find, Ruji and his comrades then brought the other ninjas to the house where Raven hid their first prisoner.

"Tell us, are these three the other Kusunoki-style ninjas from Nara that Eric had hired along with you?" Van had questioned to the first captive while having his and his comrades' faces cloaked with a white hood and scarf to hide their identities to the captive ninjas.

"No doubt about it." the blond had confirmed to him.

"Fool! I'll kill for you telling them our location and identity!" one of the three other enemy ninjas cursed to the first one.

"You are not in the position to do that. If you want to live, just do what we tell you to do!" Raven had yelped at the dissident as he stepped on the latter's back to silence him.

"Have any of you people ever getting intimate with a woman at least once?" Ruji asked to the other four Nara shinobi.

"What do you mean by that?" the second prisoner asked the Aoiroh master.

"We will release you only if you raped Prozen's child." Irvine had retorted to them.

"Melissa-chan, take give these ninjas' haoris to Bit-san and his squad mates. This is in order to fool Prozen's men into thinking that their ninjas had betrayed them. Ruji whispered to Van's genin.

"The lieutenant-ranked, scout-level ninja had immediately went to their other allies to complete the latter's disguises.

While Van and his fellow jonins kept the enemy shinobi imprisoned in the second headquarters, Melissa has kept the ramen shop running in the near their first hideout for the time being. Simultaneously, Bit, Brad Naomi and Jamie had snuck into Prozen's palace to kidnap Prozen's child in order to have Eric's ninjas rape the girl.

"Bit-san,you and Brad-san take the bitch while everyone is in panic. Jamie-kun and I will spread confusion to their ranks." Naomi has instructed to her fellow captain-rank chuunins.

"Wakatta!" Brad replied as he prepared bottles of highly flammable oil for Naomi and Jamie's distraction ploy.

"Naomi-san, we should light up fires simultaneously in order to maximize the anxiety of Prozen's officials." Jamie told his sempai.

"Wait for us, Naomi-san, Jamie-kun! We want to help too!" Kotona and Michael quietly said to their allies.

"Who sent you here, Kotona-san, Michael-kun?" Bit asked to his comrades.

"Irvine-san have asked us to help you in kidnapping Prozen's child." Michael answered to Bit.

"Sempai asked that? Oh well, we'll just follow through." Bit retorted.

The six of them then went to different locations within the feudal compound's perimeter. As soon as they have arrived at their target buildings, they dosed the edifices with the oil and had them immolated.

"The Generals' documents room is engulfed by flame. Tell every available personnel on duty to extinguish the fire." one of the guards yelled.

"Sir, the riffles barracks, gun storage house and the forge are being razed by fire!" the others told him.

"Sir, Prozen-sama's tea hall is also burning." another soldier said to them.

Soon, flames have been appearing in several important buildings inside the palace's borders. However, the ninjas have deliberately avoided burning the palace's main mansion to throw off the attention of Prozen and his men from Natalie.

"Sweet nightmares, bitch!" Brad whispered to her ear as he covered her nose and mouth with a cloth filled with sleeping powder to knock her out.

"Everyone retreat. We have accomplished what we came here for." Bit told his friends as he and Brad silently spirited Natalie away to the edge of the Sawaki forest.

While the ninjas escaped to the shadows in the moonlight, Prozen had gathered his generals and other officials to explain to him the incident

"Now tell me what is going on in here!" the tyrannical daimyo demanded to them.

"Prozen-sama, I'm sure that only ninjas could have done this. But we will assure you that our men will capture the ninjas responsible for this." Eric had replied to his lord, hoping his own ninjas would intercept Ruji's chuunin squad.

"Well, do it!" Prozen hollered at Eric, Kirt, Siefers, Hardin, Zairin, Georg and Hannah.

Just before Bit and Brad joined the rest of the kidnapping team, the two of them had intentionally let three of Prozen's house keepers to see their enemy ninjas' haoris as they brought Natalie with them.

"Prozen-sama, Natalie-sama has been kidnapped!" the house cleaner had reported to him.

"What!" Prozen shouted at them in an enraged tone.

"Could it be that those ninjas had set numerous fires not just to destroy our arms but also to kidnap Natalie-sama?" Hardin said to the rest of Prozen's men.

"That's the only reason I can see for such an action." Kirt had responded to her.

"Go out and search for my child right away. Don't stop until you have found her." Prozen has ordered to his generals, apparently concerned at the only person who matters to him.

Van and his comrades then brought the four captive ninjas to the logger's cottage where Leena hid earlier that day, which is situated about forty meters inside the Sawaki forest. I didn't take long for Bit and his squad to arrive at the site. The Nagano and Niigata ninjas have been cloaking their faces to conceal their identities since the capture of Eric's men. Kotona then administered an awakening drug in order to ensure Natalie will be conscious during the time Eric's ninjas would harass her.

"You already know what to do. Don't hold yourselves back on her. Also, rip her clothes off so that can't hide her ruined honor." Kotona told the Nara ninjas.

The enemy ninjas followed out of fear as the Nagano and Niigata ninjas locked the door of the cottage Bit, Brad and Naomi left the enemy shinobi's haoris for Prozen's soldiers to find. All of them, except for Kotona, went back to their main headquarters. At that moment, Natalie has begun to recover her consciousness.

"What are you doing to me?" the female samurai demanded to Eric's warriors.

"Isn't it obvious? We're sure you'll enjoy this as well!" one of them had replied as they began to destroy her honor.

"Yamete kudasai!" the young woman yelled as her body was ravaged by the three shinobi.

"That serves you right for what your father has done to my parents, my masters and my masters' children!" Van had thought as he entered the first headquarters and swapped places with Melissa as the resident acupuncturist.

"Now your father will know what I have felt when his horse-faced generals raped my twin sister!" Kotona muttered in her mind as she delighted on the helpless cries of their enemy's only child. After a couple of minutes, she too left them and headed to the fourth house Raven had rented in order to rest.

"Alright. Jamie-kun, go to Eric and tell him that you had discovered Prozen's daughter is being dishonored by ninjas." Raven had ordered to the captain-rank chuunin. "As for you, act as if you had been beaten by your lackeys. If you do or say to them anything other than what we want you to do and say, you're done for right away. Is it clear." he turned his attention to the first captive.

While the first Nara shinobi the ninja masters had subdued feigned as being battered by his fellows, Jamie went on his way and met Eric after about twenty minutes to tell him of what's currently happening to Prozen's child.

"General Eric, General Eric, I have seen Natalie-sama being raped by four men! But one of them saw me so I ran as fast as I could to escape them." the thirteen year-old chuunin told the violet-haired general.

"What! Natalie-sama is being harassed?" Hardin had asked the shinobi with her full voice.

"Hai." he replied to her.

"Lead us to where those bastards are!" Eric asked to Ruji's subordinate.

And just as Raven had planned, Prozen's men stumbled upon the ninja whom Van had paralyzed. To completely neutralize him, Kotona hypnotized the said shinobi to act and tell them only the things Raven wanted him to do and mention.

"General Eric, my fellows paralyzed me when I disagreed with their plan to kidnap and rape Prozen-sama's daughter." the hypnotized ninja told the general.

"You mean your team mates are the ones responsible for the arson and kidnapping of Natalie-sama.

The paralyzed shinobi had nodded in agreement.

"Right. For being loyal to Prozen-sama, you'll be free to go after you have received your payment." the samurai replied, unaware that the remaining ninja was brainwashed.

Hannah then found the haoris of Eric's shinobi lying near the cottage. Immediately, Zairin then forced the door open to reveal that all of Natalie's clothes had been torn to shreds and the four other Nara ninjas tormenting her in different parts of her body. Eric and his men wasted no time in capturing the three and Hardin gave her extra kimono to her master's daughter.

Prozen's men then returned to the palace, along with the ninjas who had assaulted the treacherous daimyo's daughter.

"Natalie, what happened to you?" Prozen asked his child with a fatherly care.

"Dad, those ninjas…they harassed me!" the young woman pointed to the ninjas Eric had hired.

"We're sorry, Prozen-sama! We have hired ninjas from the Nara area in order to patrol this town but have instead turned on your daughter." Eric, Kirt and Siefers apologized to their lord.

"Your foolishness has lead to the defilement of my child. Execute those ninjas right away!" Prozen had ordered furiously at his generals.

The four ninjas were immediately slashed in two by Eric while he sent back to Nara the other remaining shinobi.

"Next time, I will never again hire a ninja from Nara." the green-haired samurai had thought.

Early the next morning, The Nagano and Niigata ninjas were busy assessing their plans to turn Prozen's generals against each other. While discussing the possible actions that they must take for every conceivable situation, Rosso came to their hideout to reveal that almost all residents of Hoshikagami want Prozen to be thrown off from power as soon as possible.

"So that confirms what almost all of our customers yesterday had said to me." Van and Ruji both mentioned at the same time.


	8. Chapter 8:

Chapter 8: Abare! Osusemarumono ni Aitesuru Shimin no Mida

(Rampage! Rebellion of the Citizens against the Oppressor)

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was originally authored by Michiro Ueyama. I'm merely borrowing Ueyama-sensei's characters.)

Empowered by the success of the previous night's operation, the Nagano and Niigata ninjas have also discovered that nearly all of the common citizens residing in Prozen's conquered territories, mainly in Hoshikagami, want the tyrannical daimyo to be deposed. But Rosso was about to reveal something that would delight Van.

"Van-san, you must learn something very important." Rosso had told the junior ninja master.

"Nani?" the Byakutaka master had asked in response.

"Isami-sama and Atsushi-sama had told me and Thomas-san that you're parents are still alive." the carmine-haired warrior replied to the seventeen year-old shounen.

"Hontoh ni?" Van asked in disbelief.

"Hai. Even Fiona hime-sama's previous maid Moonbay has confirmed it to me when I chanced upon her cell near Atsushi-sama and Isami-sama's cell in the dungeon." Rosso continued.

"Thank God they're still here. Up until now, I have always thought that I would never see them again." Van had said as he tried to hold back his emotions.

"Don't worry, We'll save them within a few days." Ruji assured to his companion.

"And within a few days, that demon's reign will finally collapse." Seijuro added in compliment.

"To do that, we need the help of the town's people. We should convince them that they don't have to wait for us ninjas to rescue them." Van then said to them.

"Ruji-sama, Ross-san has already started raiding the houses of Prozen's generals for expensive items." Bit had intervened.

"If that's the case, then she should start framing the generals for kidnapping members of one another's households." Irvine had ordered to the chuunin.

As soon as Bit received the command, he went to Leena to tell her what she needed to do next. Meanwhile, Van returned to the military barracks to collect any additional useful information.

"So how did it go?" Bit asked the pink-haired prostitute as he reached his destination.

"Last night around ten, after Prozen's men had finished killing the ninjas whom General Eric had hired to watch out for you but whom you turned against them by having Prozen's daughter raped by four of those five, I got Generals Kirt, Siefers, Georg, Marx, Stinger and Jack heavily drunk by giving them excessive amounts of sake. Naomi-san and I then put them in separate rooms and questioned them about their family members in addition to the luxury items in the possession of other generals which they want to have." the harlot had replied.

"Have you already got them?" asked Ruji's subordinate to her.

"Many, but not all since it would become to obvious if I took all of those at once." Leena had replied to him. "Also I need those generals to personally steal one another's valuables." she added.

"I think I need to tell Brad-san and Captain O'Connel from Seijuro-sama's tribe to help me in impersonating those generals. For that part, take some of those generals' clothes and get them drunk throughout this tactic's duration, so as to make it appear that they're stealing items and kidnapping family members from one another." Bit told to her.

"No problem!" Leena had replied as she returned to her work while Bit returned to the Byakutaka main village.

Back at Van's main village, Maria has been temporarily in charge since Van and the others went undercover.

"Maria-san, will Van-kun be safe?" Fiona had asked Van's sister.

"No worries, Fiona hime-sama. I'm sure my otohtoh is perfectly fine." the kunoichi had replied as she picked up a pair of ninja-ken from her parents' room

"Fiona hime-sama, do you know that these pair of swords was personally crafted by our grandfather as a present to our dad when he became the leader of our tribe?" Maria mentioned to Fiona as she showed them to the princess.

"So those swords must mean a lot to you, don't they?" the younger lady asked.

"Hai. These swords had been named by our grandfather as Hikari Washi." Maria had responded.

"Hikari Washi… that name means eagle of light, isn't it?" Fiona had complemented to Van's sister.

"Exactly. The first kanji sign, hikari, meaning light, symbolizes our principle to reside in the light of truth. The second character, washi, meaning eagle, signifies that fighting for the truth and defending what is right gives freedom and pacifies one's life, just like the freedom and peacefulness of the eagles soaring in the sky." the black-haired kunoichi had riposted.

"Maria-san, please let me join in the coming battle. I have always depended on you to fight for me. Now, let me return to you your faithfulness to my family." the young princess demanded to her.

"Fiona hime-sama, it's way to dangerous there. Just stay here, alright." Maria had retorted.

"No. I know that Van-kun needs me there. Besides, I need to rescue my parents myself." Fiona had responded.

"If you're going to do that, I'll go with you. Dad and Mom will be delighted to see us again." Kanata told his sister.

"Kanata-sama, if you want to completely crush Prozen's forces, you'll need to convince the people of your town to openly rebel against him." Karl had told the daimyo's son.

"How are we going to do that?" Kanata asked the samurai.

"I'll temporarily serve as their leader." the Rudolph's general had replied to him.

Just as Karl declared his plan, Bit arrived to tell everyone that what the samurai has suggested was what Van's team was planning for.

"Shubaltz-san, good thing you have thought of that! Van-sama and the others need you there to make a diversion to Prozen's army." the captain-rank chuunin had mentioned.

"Then I'll head over there." Karl had answered.

Meanwhile, in Hoshikagami's underground prison complex, Thomas was being temped to release Fiona's parents. But the Lynette couple had commanded him not to do so in order for the ninjas' plans to succeed.

"Thomas-kun, if you wanted to release somebody from this underground prison, then let that person be Moonbay-chan. Almost all of our citizens look up to her as a great servant, so she would be able to help Van-kun in convincing the people to rebel against Prozen." Isami had requested to him.

"But if I do that, Moonbay-san might get killed." Thomas had replied.

Just as Thomas and his master were contemplating on a plan, Jamie had slipped through the guards and approached the blond samurai.

"I'll spirit her away to one of our hideouts!" the deep-brown haired, captain-rank chuunin had answered to him, startling Thomas in the process.

"How did you get here in the main prison?" the samurai had asked to him.

"You already know the answer since I'm a shinobi." Jamie had answered to Thomas. "Thomas-san, your anija will go in this town to serve as a leader of the commoners in rebellion Ruji-sama and the others had been planning." he added.

"Jamie-san. Tell Van-san and the others that I'll release of the prisoners here tonight so that she may be able to help Karl nii-san in leading the commoners against Prozen's forces." Thomas had mentioned to the ninja.

"Good. We need all the help that we can get!" Jamie muttered as he bode their time to free Moonbay from the underground chamber.

"Excuse me, chuunin-kun, but how are you suppose to spirit me away if there are a lot of soldiers patrolling around this prison?" Moonbay intervened.

"I'll draw their attention away while Thomas-san would pretend you had rendered him unconscious."

As the feudal family and their servants are discussing their next actions, Eric and his fellow generals have been discussing the events which had taken place the previous night.

"According to one witness, one of your ninjas was chasing another shinobi whom a reddish brown-haired lad claimed to have stolen something from General Georg." Zairin had told to Eric.

"He was chasing another ninja yesterday?" the green-eyed samurai said in surprise.

Zairin then nodded in accordance.

"Could it be that shinobi had discovered we're using other ninjas against them and manipulated our ninjas into raping Natalie-sama?" Eric had mentioned to the other generals.

"If I'm in the position of those ninjas, having our own shinobi rape Natalie-sama would be a perfect way to eliminate enemy ninjas without compromising secrecy." Kirt had commented.

"If that's the case, start a town-wide shinobi hunt since Flash Tiger and his comrades are now fully aware of our actions and they will simply have us or our men kill our own ninjas for them." Eric had responded.

"Do you think they'll try to attack us soon?" Stinger asked the other samurai.

"Possibly within a few days' time. Tell your men to be on full alert starting today up until next week. Our enemy ninjas might attack us any day now." Eric requested to the other generals.

As Eric gave out his recommendations, Catherine and Van were already eavesdropping on them, with the former disguised as a cook.

"Did you hear that, Van-sama?" the orange-haired kunoichi had thought.

"Clearly. I'm going to meet with Irvine-san to tell that Eric has found out our plan's logic to discuss what could we do to counter their next moves. Tell the other chuunins and genins to be extra careful from now on." Van had riposted to her.

As the two of them were discussing how to outsmart Prozen's men, Hannah walked towards them to goad them to return to work.

"What are the two of you talking about?" the female samurai asked to the two ninjas.

"Well, me and my imohto were counting our earnings for the past few days and are talking about how we could earn enough money to be able to enjoy the coming mid-autumn festival." Van lied to his enemy.

"If you want to get paid handsomely, then make sure you correctly prune the bonsai there." Hardin has yelled i return.

"Stupid hag, I'll make sure you'll no longer be able to yell at me." the Byakutaka master had thought.

As soon as Hardin had completely left the area, Van and his subordinate then secretly resumed the discussion of their next moves.

"Catherine-san, you need to tell them now about Eric's discovery." he commanded to the captain-ranked chuunin.

"Wakatta, Van-sama!" the persimmon haired ninja retorted as she left her master.

After a few minutes, she was met by a fellow captain-rank female chuunin.

"Kotona-san, the plans are under jeopardy. Eric and his men had finally figured out we had his ninjas rape that demon's daughter." Catherine whispered to the green-haired kunoichi.

"Wakatta! I'll ask them what our counter plans would be." Kotona said as she headed back to their fourth base.

Upon reaching the said headquarters, Kotona told her masters about Eric's discovery. At about four in the afternoon, Van left the palace gardens after collecting his pay to prevent arousing the suspicions of Prozen's men. He headed to Irvine's ramen tent to discuss with him the hunch of Eric about the principle of their operation the previous night.

"Now that Eric has discovered that we had his shinobi rape that demon's child, we need to disorganize them now." Seijuro had mentioned to the others.

"If we are to ensure that, we need to use those samurai themselves to confuse them." Raven had replied.

"Don't worry. I'll hypnotize those generals." Kotona consulted to the jonins.

"No need for that. Just a little excess sake can do the trick." Leena had said as she bought some of the samurai's clothes to Bit and the other chuunins while assessing the necessary changes in their plans.

Raven then suddenly came in, accompanying Karl in his infiltration of the town.

"Is it true Eric had discovered the truth about our mission last night?" the ninja master had asked to his fellows.

"No doubt about it. Horse-face is a smart samurai. I had anticipated that he would eventually figure out that it was our plan to have him kill his own shinobi." Van had responded to his rival.

"We need the people to rebel against Prozen within two days as I'm sure that Prozen would be starting a crackdown in the following days." Irvine told to his comrades.

"Let me organize them." Karl presented to the ninjas. "I'll tell the common towns folk here that we will need their help to overthrow Prozen." the samurai general had continued.

"While Rudolph-dono's general will organize the rebellion of the town's citizen, We'll coordinate our personnel about the coming assault two days from now." Irvine and Rosso told their fellow ninja master.

"Wakatta!" Van and the others had replied.

Later that night, Jamie and Thomas made their move. The two of them knocked out the guards patrolling Moonbay's cell. Thomas then pretended that he was also knocked out by the chuunin. As soon as Jamie had secured Moonbay on his back, he spirited her away. The break out had drawn the attention of Hardin and her men after a few minutes.

"Can't you go any faster, chuunin-kun?" Moonbay asked to the thirteen year old captain.

"I can, but if you're not afraid on heights!" Jamie had retorted as he jumped to the roofs of the houses.

"Soshite, ikou!" Moonbay told him.

Down bellow, Hardin and her troops were trying to go after the escapees.

"Don't just watch, shoot him!" the pink-haired samurai commanded to her troops.

Arrows and bullets then came flying toward Moonaby and Jamie's direction.

"Shit! Looks like that bitch is desperate to get us." the captain said as he hurled torinoko in retaliation.

As the smoke produced by the bombs depleted their pursuers' sights, Jamie managed to escape but he sustained a wound from a rifle's bullet, while Moonbay was relatively unhurt.

"Chuunin-kun, are you alright. It seems a bullet got you in the shin." Moonbay asked to Jamie.

"That hag had only scratched me. Anyway, we'll head to Van-sama's hideout and please, call me Captain Jamie." the chuunin told Moonbay in response.

Hardin and her troops, meanwhile, returned to their base empty handed. Catherine, meanwhile, trailed the pursuing enemy troops.

"Damn it! That ninja had released another prisoner!" Hardin uttered to herself.

"If anyone is to blame, it should be the guards who were supposed to be watching that prisoner at that time." Eric said to her.

"Well then, bring those guards here so I may behead them and when you bring them, make sure that they're very much battered!" Hardin told to her men.

From a secluded corner of the barracks, Catherine clearly heard what the samurai generals had discusses and silently went to follow Hardin's soldiers. As the soldiers enter the underground chamber, they wasted no time in torturing Thomas and the three guards on duty at that night.

"Leave Thomas-san alone!" Atsushi yelled to Hardin's subordinates as he tried to fight them but was unable to get near their enemies due to the heavy metal chains with milling stones at the ends that had been tied to his feet.

"Shut up, old man! Even if you can fight back, there is no way you can come here." one of the Iteza soldiers mocked to Fiona's father.

Outside, Catherine rushed to the underground prison complex as fast as she could.

"God, please don't let Thomas-san die!" the kunoichi had thought as she raced to his location.

After about eight minutes, she has finally arrived to the underground prison complex but before Catherine can enter the dungeon, some of Eric's soldiers blocked her way.

"Pride or blood? Which will you disown first?" Catherine said as she pulled the shinobi-kumade from her vest and attacked the samurai troops.

"Tough talking from just one ninja, eh?" one of the soldiers tried to taunt her.

"So its limbs!" she retorted.

She and Eric's men fought for a few minutes. Then one by one, the soldiers fell as the kunoichi used her weapon to rake the faces of the soldiers and inflict other serious injuries. However, she herself sustained hard punches and kicks.

"Kisama!" Catherine squealed as she repeatedly kicked them with full force on their groins. As the soldiers knelt in pain, she used the chance to force them to ingest a sleeping poison.

"That should silence them sooner or later." the orange-haired captain thought as she headed down the prison to rescue Thomas and the other guards. But just as she was about to enter the chamber, two ninjas came out from a nearby tree.

"Michael-kun, Melissa-chan, what are you doing here?" Catherine asked her comrades.

"Relax, Catherine-taichoh. We also heard what Hardin had told her men to do to Thomas and the three innocent guards so headed here as fast as we could to help." the younger ninjas had riposted to their superior.

"Well then, carry Thomas-san and the others to a safe place where we can treat their injuries. I'll fight of those remaining goons." the captain-rank chuunin ordered to the two genins.

The three of them entered the dungeon right away.

"General Hardin wouldn't behead you and your fellows if only you had guarded that maid more carefully!" one of the soldiers said to the badly battered Thomas as they were about to leave the underground prison.

"And it would be bad for you if you killed them!" Catherine said to them. She then charged at the samurai and used her rake to disable the swords of Prozen's men.

Thomas them caught a glimpse of the kunoichi captain as she retaliated for the abuses the prison guards had suffered.

"You're indeed like a persimmon." the blond-haired samurai referred to Catherine's orange hair and eyes as he lost consciousness.

While the skirmish continued, the genins began to attend to the injuries of the injured guards.

"Mellisa-chan, Michael-kun, hayaku! Get them out of here!" she had called on her subordinates as she held them at bay.

The genins them picked up the injured people and hid in the nearby trees while their captain tried to finish the fight as quickly as possible. After defeating Hardin's men, she wasted no time in following her subordinates.

"Taichoh, you look pretty tattered up." Michael said to his superior.

"Don't worry about me. Thomas-san and the others suffered a lot worse than this." the captain-ranked chuunin said as she blushed upon seeing Thomas.

"Taichoh, shouldn't we head to the outpost village to treat them?" Mellisa questioned to Catherine.

"Exactly." the kunoichi had answered to them.

As the three ninjas headed back to Sawaki forest, Jamie and Moonbay reached the headquarters where Van and the others were planning their next steps.

"Freiheit-kun, is that you?" Moonbay said as she saw her long time friend?

"Moonbay-san, it's been five years since I last saw you. I thought that you had been killed in the siege." Van had replied to the brunette.

"Is Fiona hime-sama safe? Where is she now?" the dark-skinned woman had asked him.

"No worries. She is completely safe in my main village." the ninja master had retorted in turn.

"Freiheit-kun, I heard from Thomas-san that you have been planning for a revolt. If that's true, let me our town's common people." Moonbay had requested.

"Sumanai, but you're still a hot item under Prozen's men." Irvine had responded to her.

"Van-san, I don't want to be rude, but I think she'll be able to lead the ordinary citizens here." Karl intervened to them. "She is one of the few people whom the citizens know would dare to rebel against Prozen." the samurai general had continued.

Outside the headquarters, the news that Moonbay had escaped Prozen has boosted the morale of the Hoshikagami citizens.

"If Moonbay-san, Fiona hime-sama, and Kanata-sama would start a rebellion against Prozen, I wouldn't think twice about joining her." one citizen told the others at the gathering.

Almost all of the other people there cheered his as they agreed to what he had said.

"See, the people here like me to lead them against Prozen's dictatorship." Moonbay told her comrades as they had clearly heard the town's people's wishes.

"Alright. Tomorrow, you and Karl need to rally nearly all the people here in your support." Van had mentioned as he was left with no other choice than to let her join the battle.

Next morning at the barracks, Hardin received the news that the squad she had sent to the prison had been ambushed by Maria's protégé.

"Fools! They had encountered just one ninja and yet all of them have been defeated?" the pink-haired samurai said angrily to her men.

"This is getting bad! If those ninjas succeeded in releasing the Lynette family and boosting the morale of the common people here, the entire town would no longer hesitate to rebel against Prozen-sama!" Eric had said in response as his patience was wearing thin due to their consecutive failures.

"Why are some of the dungeon's most important prisoners escaping one after the other? Haven't you learned anything when those ninjas' son had freed the Lynette family's heir?" Prozen said to his generals as he approached them.

"Our apologies, Prozen-sama. We have a hunch that what they want to happen is to urge the citizens to join them in waging a war against your clan's rule. Also, we now think that my shinobi had not raped Natalie-sama willingly, but those ninjas' son had forced my ninjas to molest your daughter in order for me to kill them and destroy my means of looking out for that brat." Eric had replied to his master.

"Are you saying those ninjas' son had used your ninjas to molest my daughter?" the grey-haired traitor had asked again.

The violet-haired samurai then nodded in response.

"In that case, set up the execution of those two ninjas four days from now. I'm sure he would be lured out." Prozen ordered to his men.

From a nearby building, Brad was able to hear what Prozen had said, and went to his fellow ninjas to get their plan in motion. That night, Leena was busy getting Marx and Stinger excessively drunk by giving them unusually strong sake.

"Kotona-san, tell Van-sama and the others that Prozen would have Dan-sama and Karen-sama executed four days from now." Brad told his fellow captain.

The green-haired kunoichi then left immediately as she was eager to tell her masters about Prozen's plan.

Brad then instructed Leena to proceed with their next plan as soon the tension began to rise amongst Prozen's generals

"What do you want me to do now, General Marx?" asked the magenta-haired prostitute to the samurai.

"I want to take General Georg's daughter in bed." the drunk man answered, unaware of the manipulation taking place.

"Then why don't you ask your blond soldier there to take his child." Leena continued.

The general then nodded in response, thinking that the blond man was his lieutenant. But Bit and the others had hidden away Marx's lieutenant in order to deceive him in addition to Bit having an appearance which coincidentally looks similar to him.

In just a few minutes, Bit, disguised as a samurai, brought Georg's daughter to Marx. As Bit arrived in Marx's house, the unconscious girl was stripped of her clothes by Leena, who also had Marx stripped of this apparel as she placed the girl on top of the general.

"How about you, General Stinger? What do you desire to do?" Leena has asked him as soon as she was finished framing Marx.

"I think General Zairin would only pay his debts to me if I take his son as a hostage." the other drunk samurai had answered.

Brad then went to Zairin's house to kidnap the boy, who was sleeping soundly in his bed.

"I hate to kidnap young boys, but the lives and freedom of the people here are more important than you." Brad thought as he took the boy with him and tied him with ropes.

The night progressed. By the time Zairin went back to his home, he discovered that his child was missing for several hours already.

"Do everything you must to find Kotaro!" Zairin yelled to his servants.

While everything in Zairin's household was in confusion, Stinger came back to his senses and found out that Zairin's child was in his possession.

"I don't know who had brought this boy here, but this is a sure way to get Zairin pay his debts to Me." the other general had thought.

At Georg's house, a similar event was unfolding as well.

"Fools! Why did you left my daughter alone?" Georg shouted at his servants.

"General Marx's lieutenant came here and said you're sending her to General Marx's house." the cook replied to him.

Georg immediately headed to Marx's house and what he had found there shocked him.

"Marx, how dare you do this to my daughter?" Georg questioned to the other samurai.

"Haven't you said that you would give her to me as my wife?" Marx questioned to him in return.

"I said that she may become your wife two years later, not when she is still fourteen!" Georg yelled as he pulled his sword and tried to slash the other general.

"Dad, please stop! You can't undo the damage done to me now." the girl asked to his father as she cried heavily.

Georg then placed his sword back to the scabbard and took his daughter with him.

"You may have survived because of my daughter's pleas, but from now on, I won't listen to you, nor would I still give her to a swine like you!" the samurai warned sternly to the latter.

When the sun had risen, Zairin's men found out that his son was in Stinger's house.

"Why haven't you returned Kotaro to me last night?" the blond samurai asked the other general.

"I would only return him if you pay all your debts to me." the other samurai had replied.

"Fine then, but don't ever talk to me again after I have paid my debts!" Zairin said to Stinger.

"Bit-san, Brad-san, this is better that what I had anticipated!" Leena said to the chuunins as they watched the disagreements among the generals deepen.

Ever since Moonbay had escaped a couple of days before, she and Karl have been organizing the rebel crowd and sympathize with town' people. They were overwhelmed by the number of people who had given their support to them. The two of them had used some disguises to hide their identities to Prozen's soldiers.

"Karl-san, this is better that I imagined. Already, another one thousand people have joined us this morning alone in addition to the one thousand or so yesterday!" the brunette said to the samurai.

"We need this may people to ensure our victory. I'm sure more will join later this day." Karl had riposted to her.

"Alright, we'll attack Prozen at our signal." Moonbay told the crowd.

News then reached Prozen later that morning that the people of Hoshikagami have lost their fear of his clan and are now planning to overthrow him and return to the rule of their real daimyo.

"Hardin, tell your men to enforce martial law starting this coming midnight!" the silver-haired daimyo commanded his general.

Hardin then went to the barracks to tell her fellow generals about their master's orders.

"Generals, all of you must combine your forces and enforce martial law starting tonight at twelve!" the pink-haired samurai told the rest of Prozen's army.

"Like I would let my men get perverted by this pig!" Georg said as he meant an insult to Marx.

"What's the problem with you, bastard!" Marx had retaliated.

"Also, there is a fag here who would use his debtor's son to get him pay his debts to that gay!" Zairin then blurted, referring to Stinger.

"Who are you calling a gay, jackass!" the other samurai said in return.

"If you don't like to cooperate with each other, fine, but make sure martial law would be enforced at midnight!" Eric said to the rest of Prozen's men.

Eavesdropping for nearly an hour in the branches of a nearby tree, Van sent some pigeons that contained bottled messages to his comrades in Nagano about Prozen's plans while he returned to their hideout to discuss the plans of the coming rebellion. After carefully discussing the main plan and alternate battle tactics in order to adjust to any possible weaknesses, Van and the other ninja masters then organized their respective tribes' ninjas in the coming battle.

"Hime, why are you dressed like that?" Van had asked to his lover as he saw her wear a blue haori filled with light bombs, shurikens and fukiya needles. He also saw her carrying a pair of ninja-kens with her.

"Van-kun, I'll go help you to. I want to be the one to rescue my parents!" Fiona had retorted. "By the way, please take this swords with you." the princess had added.

"These are…" the Byakutaka master muttered as he saw the blades personally crafted by his grandfather.

"Hai! Hikari Washi, the eagle of light." Fiona had responded.

"But what if you get killed in the battle?" Van had mentioned out of love and concern.

"Don't worry, Van-kun! For years, I have watched how your grandfather trained you and how you ninjas train for battle. Now, let me use the knowledge I may have gained from your tribe." the scarlet-eyed lady had replied.

"Alright, limit yourself to just tending the injured." the ninja master had responded to his wife to be as he brushed the two strands of greenish-blonde hair hanging in front of her forehead.

"Van-kun, I'll go there too. I'll serve as a back-up to you in case there some of Prozen's men are inside our parent's cells." Kanata said to his subordinate.

Van then nodded in agreement with his younger master's decision.

"And please promise me that you'll comeback alive, Van-narachoh!" Fiona had answered to her ninja as she looked at his crown-like black hair.

"You have never called me by the title of Head Master before. I promise, I'll be alive for you!" Van had responded.

Night then came, with the five ninja tribes' warriors totaling about a thousand.

"Prozen, it's time for you to pay for your betrayal of my family." Kanata thought as he armed himself in the battle which would take place within a few hours.

Bit. Brad, Naomi, Jamie, Kotona, Catherine, Melissa and Michael then went to the houses of Prozen's highest generals, carrying with them bottles of flammable liquids.

"I don't think the nine main generals would still be able to coordinate one another if we burned the houses of eight of them, in addition to burning Prozen's palace for the second time." Kotona had thought as she sparked the wicks of her bottles.

A few moments later, Rosso had launched a large yellow kite with the kanji sign for victory airborne. At that instant, the eight ninjas simultaneously set the houses of the generals on fire.

"What are you waiting for? Extinguish those flames immediately!" Hannah ordered to her troops.

However, the eight ninjas were burning the edifices of Prozen's officers faster than his men could respond to. One after another, fires were breaking out and the troops were confused about which building to save first.

"Sir, the firearms storage houses are being razed by flames." an Iteza man reported to Eric.

"The military stations are being arsoned?" the samurai general asked in turn.

His subordinate then nodded in response.

"How many of our firearms and archery warehouses are still safe?" the general had asked in response.

"All of them are now ablaze." the soldier answered.

"Damn it! Burning our military stations to destroy nearly all of our firearms and archery equipments and render us mostly weaponless. I'm quite certain, that wolf would strike us now!" Eric had thought. "Everyone, secure the borders of the town. Prozen-sama's enemy ninjas would most like attack tonight." the samurai ordered to his division.

At the middle of the town, Moonbay and Karl, along with about two thousand five hundred people charged towards Eric's incoming soldiers.

At the edge of the Sawaki forest, the five ninja tribes rushed to the town to help the citizens in their battle.

"Prozen-sama, a massive army of ninjas are surging to the town!" an exhausted soldier told Prozen.

"Order all the troops to meet then head on!" the silver-haired traitor ordered to his men.

"But if we did that, this whole town will be incinerated." the soldier answered as Kotona hurled a lighted bottle towards Natalie's room.

"Moeru! A demon such as you and your father must be killed in any way possible!" the chuunin had thought as she had also thrown a lighted bottle towards Prozen from her vantage point in his veranda.

"Natalie, are you alright?" Prozen had asked his child as she came running towards him.

"Dad, a ninja suddenly appeared at my room's window and tried to burn me!" Natalie had answered to her father.

"Idiot! Tell the troops to extinguish the flames here right away!" the tyrant ordered to his soldier.

"But sir, how about the ninjas?" the soldier asked again.

"Deal with them too!" Prozen had said forcefully.

"Prozen-sama, the people in this town have started hurling stones at one of my squads while another squad is being clubbed with rods by another group of commoners as soon as they were about to block the ninjas' entry." Eric had reported to his master.

"What? Don't tell me those ninjas and the people coordinated a plan to attack us simultaneously!" the false daimyo had yelped as confusion started to grip his mind.

"It would seem to be that way, Prozen-sama!" the samurai had answered.

"Then tell all of our men to take counter-insurgency measures." Prozen had commanded.

"Sir, all of our men had been mobilized already. None of them will be left to extinguish the flames if we'll launch a full crackdown on the dissidents while fighting the ninjas at the same time." Eric reminded his master.

"Then do whatever you need to do to stop this chaos!" the silver-haired samurai told him.

"Natalie, let's go outside. Most likely, our clumsy men won't be able to extinguish the flames on time.

Prozen's generals were equally confused as which of their problems needed to be dealt with first.

"Kotaro, save yourself now! Get yourself as far away from this town as you could!" Zairin told his son.

"But daddy, what if you get killed?" the five year old boy replied to his father.

"Don't worry, Daddy will be there for you!" the general had answered to his child.

"So the ninjas and the town's people had planned to attack Prozen together. If only my parents were not indebted to Prozen, I would never have served him." Zairin had thought.

The generals attempted to reorganize their division, but before they could give proper orders to their men, they have been approached by the elites of the Nagano and Niigata ninjas. At the same time, the commoners, under the leadership of Moonbay and Karl, countered Prozen's men, with ninjas from Nagano's two tribes and Niigata's three tribes helping the town's people.

"Oyasumi nasai, General Hardin!" Kotona said as she met the pink-haired samurai on her way to her troops.

"Who are you?" Hardin had inquired sternly to the emerald-haired kunoichi.

"I'm just someone renowned for her secret beauty among the blue snows of Niigata prefecture. It's very nice to watch how easily your soldiers' coordination shatters with just a few flames." the captain-rank chuunin had replied.

"So you must be one of those arsonists, aren't you?" Hardin snarled at the kunoichi.

"No, I'm not an actual arsonist. I'm just a ninja who wants to crack Prozen's skull!" Kotona had replied as she readied garden scissors to combat the latter.

"You know that this pair of sheers can beautify garden shrubs if used by an ordinary gardener. But are you aware that I can dismember your body with this very same scissors?" the green-haired shinobi taunted to her.

"But do you think you'll be able to do that, ninja?" the pink-haired general taunted to her in return.

"No doubt about it!" Kotona said as the battle between the two women started.

At the other parts of the town, Prozen's riflemen tried to soot down the rebels as fast as they could. However, Krueger, along with his ninjas who had been trained in gun combat, countered the enemy riflemen.

"Men, as much as possible, don't kill them. They're just following orders, so just paralyze them to render them unable to shoot!" Krueger had commanded to his squad.

Van and Fiona, along with Irvine, Rosso and Viola, headed to the underground prison, with Van fending of the guards and the two other ninja leaders defending the feudal family.

"Hime, I can take care all of them. Just release all of Prozen's prisoners in that chamber." the Byakutaka master told his lady.

"If there are just ten of you, you won't stand a chance against me!" the ninja master had taunted to enemy soldiers.

One after the other, Van broke the bones and severed the nerves of the soldiers to completely paralyze them.

"Take those easy, folks! Your injuries aren't fatal since I prefer tortmenting my opponents rather than killing them." Van told the soldiers that he had crippled.

Inside the underground chamber, Fiona and Kanata opened the cell where their parents have been imprisoned for five years while Rosso releases Van's parents from their cell.

"Dan-sempai, Karen-sempai, we need to get out of here as soon as we can. Prozen's men could come here any minute now!" the carmine-haired ninja told the former leaders of the Shirotaka.

"How did you get here?" Dan asked his old comrade.

"I'll explain later. Right now, we still have a demon to kill." Rosso had riposted.

"Are you referring to Prozen?" Karen had questioned in turn.

The Kuroguma leader had nodded in response.

"I'll pawn that beast's head. And this time, I'll make sure he'll die in hell!" Dan had mentioned as he picked up the swords of the gurads whom Viola had knocked out.

"Dad, Mom, I'm so glad to see you!" Fiona had said to her parents as she embraced the two of them.

"Fiona, our youngest one, we also miss you so much! This is the day your mother and I had longed for." Atsushi said to his child in response.

"So how are you now, sweetheart?" Isami asked the young lady.

"Van-kun had taken care of me since the siege. He had never let me get hurt." the seventeen year old woman answered to her mother.

"By the way, we need to tell you something concerning you and Van-kun." Isami continued.

"Nani?" the young lady had asked in question.

"When Prozen betrayed us and first attacked us seventeen years ago, you were just a week-old baby then. After my friend, Dan had successfully defeated Prozen's men, I rewarded him by having you engaged to his three-week old son so that the two of you will get married one you're eighteen." Atsushi said to his daughter.

"So you mean that…" Fiona had asked her parents.

"That's right! We had long planned for you and Van-kun to get married together!" Isami had responded.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Tatakae, Nagano to Niigata no Ninja-tachi!

(Fight, Ninjas of Nagano and Niigata!)

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was originally authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely borrowed Ueyama-sensei's characters.)

"Rosso-san, Viola-san, please release all the other prisoners here. Everyone impounded in this underground chambers are dissidents of his tyrannical regime!" Dan told the Kuroguma ninjas.

"Wakatta, Dan-sempai!" the carmine-haired jonin had replied to his senior.

"Minna, there seems to be company!" Viola had sounded to the other shinobi as some of Prozen's soldiers who had been stationed inside the dungeon of the political prisoners went to their site.

"It's been five years since the last time I was able to break other people's bones. Let's see if my skills have rusted." Karen muttered as Viola handed a small metal boomerang to her.

"Karen, just leave this to us! You must protect Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama and their child while they make their out of this prison." Dan had commanded to his wife.

"No, Dan. I'll remain here to help you just like I did seventeen years ago." the daimyo had responded to his friend as he intervened.

"But Atsushi-sama…you're pretty tattered." the ninja master had replied to his master.

"Dan, just consider this as my way of repaying your son." Atsushi answered to his subordinate.

"Wakatta." Dan had riposted. "Karen, lead Isami-sama and Fiona hime-sama to the hideout Rosso-san had told us about." he has reiterated to his partner as he returned his attention to her.

"Hai, but make sure you'll live to see our son get married!" Karen had responded.

The male jonin nodded in response as the battle between the ninjas and the soldiers has started.

"Dan-narachoh, please take this sword. Your father had crafted this and its partner for you and your son." Fiona said as she handed the ninja-ken she has been holding since she and Van started the assault in the underground prison.

"This nodachi and its katana partner had been crafted and named by my dad as Hikari Washi." Dan had remembered. "Hime-sama, does my son have Hikari Washi's katana-type ninja-ken?" the jonin asked the young lady.

"Hai." the princess had responded.

"Just as my father said that I have surpassed him, I could now say my son has already surpassed me." Dan thought as he felt proud of his successor.

Prozen's men then proceeded to attack the ninjas with their swords. Dan and his comrades countered with their weapons mostly made from household tools.

"Isami-sama, Fiona hime-sama, please head this way!" Karen called the attention of their masters and led them away from the ensuing battle.

Outside, Van has crippled Prozen's clan men and made sure they'll stay alive in order to prolong their suffering.

"You deserve a slow, excruciating torture for oppressing the people of the towns you have conquered." the Byakutaka master had thought as he took down one Iteza samurai after another.

A few moments later, Karen and their masters met the young jonin at the entrance of the underground prison.

"Mom, is that you?" Van asked Karen as he saw her.

"Son, I thought that me and your father would never see you again. Even in our absence you tried to keep our people and our masters safe. Me and your father are so proud of you!" the kunoichi has riposted to her child as she embraced him.

"Please, don't cry, Mom. I just did what is right for everyone." the seventeen year old had replied.

"Van-kun, we don't know how to thank you for protecting my daughter for these past five years." Isami told to his servant.

"You don't have to thank me, Isami-sama. I did it because I …I love Fiona-hime." the young jonin had responded to his masters.

"My husband and I already know that for a long time. The truth was that you and Fiona are already arranged to be married to each other once she is eighteen." Isami had mentioned to Van.

"Hontoh ni?" the ninja had asked to his master.

"Hai." Isami had answered.

"Itsu wa made?" Van asked again.

"Since you and our daughter were still infants." the daimyo's wife answered once more.

"I hate to interrupt but we still have a lot of asses to kick, Van-san!" Ruji said as he called the Byakutaka master's attention towards Siefers and Zairin.

"The general I want to crush right now is Horseface, but I guess Siefers will do for the moment." Van had said to Ruji as the two ninjas start to engage the two samurai generals. "Mom, please lead Atsushi-sama's family towards the outpost near the forest. Ruji-san and I will finish this in a while." the jonin added.

"Be careful, son!" the kunoichi had replied as she proceeded to lead their masters to safety.

"General Siefers, your unfair and merciless taxation of Atsushi-sama's people will end here today!" Van declared to one of Prozen's highest officers.

"You arrogant bastard! You are the one who had planned all of this, aren't we right?" the samurai has asked in return.

"I believe HorseFace is the one who figured that, cursed filth." the Byakutaka master had riposted as he drew his sword from its scabbard hanging on the back of his vest. "You will see in a few minutes time the reasons other ninjas refer to me as Senko and Ninroh!" the shinobi had added.

"So General Eric is right about his suspicions that Freiheit is the ninja who goes by the names Flash Tiger and Patient Wolf, respectively." Zairin had thought as his fellow samurai and Van engaged each other in a fight.

Zairin then drew his katana from its vessel to counter Ruji's incoming attack.

"You know General, it's been a long time since I last had a serious bout with a good samurai!" Ruji taunted to Prozen's personnel.

"Well, I don't appreciate your praises, ninja!" Zairin countered with a slash.

At another part of the town, Kotona and Hardin have engaged each other in a all-out battle.

"You know bitch, for a woman, you're pretty damn good samurai!" the green haired kunoichi insulted to Prozen's general.

"And you ninjas don't always fight head-on!" Hardin had answered as the women traded blows.

"Ninjas like us are trained to fight for our own survival and the safety of our masters, not to combat for ceremonies or leisure!" Kotona had responded.

Unknown to the kunoichi, some of Hardin's subordinated had aimed their firearms at her direction. A few seconds later, some gunshots headed towards Kotona.

"Damn, this bitch is starting to piss me!" Ruji's apprentice had thought as she tried to dodge the bullets.

As the female shinobi evaded a round of shots, another group of soldiers fired their rifles at her and one bullet managed to hit her on her shin, close to her knee.

"Damn it! Those bastards got me!" Kotona had thought as she thought of a way on how to take down her other enemies.

"What's the matter? I thought you ninjas were trained to take down several well-trained soldiers on your own." the general had mocked to the kunoichi.

"We are!" Kotona had responded as she threw some torinoko to the ground to make some smokescreen.

"Men, don't just stand there, shoot!" Hardin had commanded to her troops as the smoke began to confuse them.

Hardin's soldiers then wet to find a clearing. However, Kotona leapt towards them and began assaulting them.

"One of the things I hate is for rude folks like you to intervene!" the kunoichi muttered as she took them down one by one, using her pair of gardening scissors to club and slash at them, in addition to having her sheers cut the rifles in half.

Other soldiers then began to aim their firearms towards the female shinobi. Another bullet hit Kotona, this time on one of her shoulders.

"How many dozen soldiers does each one of Prozen's generals have under their division?" she had thought as she began to lose her temper.

Unbeknownst to the shinobi, a hidden sniper has been waiting for her to fall within his range. However, before the rifleman could fire his weapon, a bear suddenly came charging from his right side and started mauling him.

"Kotona-sempai, take it easy! We'll take care of these dickheads!" Bit told to his fellow captain as he released four more bears to attack Hardin's troops.

"God knows we ninjas take a very good care of nature, so He is letting us tame wild animals!" Michael noted to his superiors.

"How dare you intervene in our fight!" the samurai yelled at the two other ninjas.

"And how dare you use more men than necessary to defeat one shinobi." Bit had responded.

"Bit-san, don't get involved in this. I'll do it myself, just me against her." the green-haired female ninja had responded to him as she returned her attention to Hardin.

"Let's finish this, General!" the kunoichi taunted to the pink-haired samurai.

"Don't have to tell me! I'll kill you and that fellow ninja of yours!" Hardin had snarled as she charged at Kotona with her sword ready.

The female samurai's assault caused Kotona to sustain a slash at her lower left arm.

"Captain Kotona!" Michael yelled as he saw his superior being seriously injured.

"You're wrong if you think that I can no longer use my left arm just because of my injury!" the green-haired kunoichi told to everyone around her.

"I see. It's in your nature to be arrogant even in the face of defeat." Hardin told the ninja as she stabbed her.

"I must…I must not lose or else…your death will be in vain!" the kunoichi had thought about her twin sister as she tried to resist the pain and summoned her strength to counterattack.

"You know general, it's you and your clan's master who will lose tonight, not us!" Kotona had replied as she thrust her closed shears into the samurai's mouth. "This is what must happen not only to you, but most especially to that horse-faced general Eric!" she has added as she opened her pruning scissors to disembowel Hardin's jaws, killing her in the process before she herself collapsed in exhaustion and pain.

"Captain Kotona, we should get you to somewhere safe!" Michael yelled as he carried his superior on his back and sought immediate medical attention.

"Michael-kun, find Catherine-taichoh as soon as you can!" Bit had ordered to the younger ninja as he prepared to engage Prozen's reinforcement troops from the neighboring town of Ishihebi.

"But Cloud-taichoh!" the genin asked him.

"Please try to ignore me. Just follow my orders!" the blond-haired chuunin told his subordinate.

The genin then left to search for the orange-haired medic chuunin while Bit tackled the incoming troops.

Bit then hurled some shuriken towards the soldiers to distract them, but to his surprise another ninja hurled tetsubishi along the Iteza warriors' path to disorganize their charge.

"Are you trying to get yourself almost killed just like what happen to Kotona-taichoh?" Naomi asked her fellow captain-rank chuunin.

"No, but how did you know what I'm about to face?" Bit had retorted.

"I met Michael-kun a while ago. He told me that a reinforcement troupe is coming along your way, so I hurried here to help you." she had responded.

"If Prozen is summoning his clan's troops from their hometown of Ishihebi, then that means he is now very desperate to stop us." the blond told her.

"We have to make a stand and beat these guys if we're to liberate all the towns that fell under this clan of beasts." Bit had said to Naomi as their returned their focus on Prozen's men.

"Geez, you folks look like you came all the way from your clan's hometown." the kunoichi had provoked to the Iteza clan's soldiers.

Bit then took out his kusari-gama set and started to slash the Iteza men with the pair of sickles from a relatively safe distance. At the same time, Naomi repeatedly hit them with a kusarifundo which have iron ball weights at both ends, effectively clubbing them before they got close.

"After all this time you're still imitating me?" Bit joked to his fellow chuunin.

"This is my own style. I never adopted your method of slashing your opponents from a distance. I prefer smashing their bones from afar." she had answered.

For several minutes, the two ninjas tried to keep the soldiers in check but Prozen's men have kept on coming wave after wave.

"Damn, how many dozens of them are left?" the blond chuunin asked in irritation.

"I don't know but they're starting to piss me off!" and equally exhausted Naomi had replied.

Gunshots then came from the Iteza ranks as Prozen's gunmen arrived and two bullets had hit Bit's left shoulder.

"Bit-san!" Naomi shouted before she too had been shot at her thigh.

The frontline soldiers of the reinforcement army then started to clear the way free of caltrops. The two ninjas tried their best not to let them advance further but their injuries prevented them from fighting effectively against the troops.

Just as the soldiers had completely cleared the path of any caltrops, a counter squad composed of Seijuro and his rifle specialist chuunins arrived to help them.

"Bit-san, Naomi-san, let Catherine-san tend to your injuries for the moment. Me and my gunmen will take over from here." the ash-haired ninja master had commanded to the two chuunins.

"But Seijuro-sama, how about Kotona-taichoh? She needs immediate medical attention?" Bit asked to his superior.

"Don't worry. Michael-kun had met Fiona hime-sama along the way. Apparently, Maria-san had taught the princess how to treat life-threatening injuries as she knew how to exactly address Kotona's medical needs." Seijuro had replied.

Back to where Karen and her masters were, the she and Fiona have been trying to reach the ninjas' first hideout as fast as they could in order to properly treat Kotona's wounds. As they made their way to meet Irvine at the said house, General Hannah and General Stinger had spotted them.

"This is not good!" Karen had muttered to Fiona, Isami and Kotona as she saw the samurai and her men charging towards them. She then prepared herself to fight off Prozen's general when suddenly, another familiar ninja appeared before the kunoichi.

"Mom, please continue where you are heading. You're still too weak to properly fight this level of opponent." Maria had requested to her mother.

"Maria…I'm so glad to see that you and your brother are alive and safe." the older kunoich had mentioned to Maria as tears of joy began to fell from her eyes.

"Mom, there is a proper time for bonding. Right now, I still have an opponent to take down." Maria had replied politely to her as she faced the female samurai. "If you want to chase them, you have to kill me first." the kunoichi has provoked to the general.

"Maria-san, let me help you handle them!" Kanata requested to Van's sister.

"But Kanata..."Isami tried to protest to her eldest child.

"Don't worry. I've fully recovered from my injuries. I could now beat these samurai." the prince has replied to his mother.

"Alright, but please be careful." Isami had retorted in turn.

The black-haired kunoichi immediately granted her master's request.

"That should be easy." Hannah had answered.

"Easier said than done!" Maria had responded as she hurled her blade-edged boomerang to the samurai.

While the two female warriors engaged each other in an all-out battle, Kanata and Stinger faced-off against each other.

"I never expected such a young man be able to face my elegance." Stinger taunted Atsushi's son.

"Can we please get this on?" Kanata fearlessly replied to Prozen's henchman.

Kanata and Stingerthen started to clash swords with each other. Even though Kanata was heavily beaten some days before, his body recovered well enough for him to be able to match and sometimes even outdo Stinger's moves.

Karen and the feudal family then left the area and continued on their way.

"Minna, hayaku!" Maria had yelled to then as she caught her boomerang after it slashed four of the general's men.

"Just sit down and watch, morons!" the kunoichi had taunted to the samurai. "Sorry about that, but I just want our fight between you and me only." she continued.

"Fine by me." Hannah had answered as she ordered her troops to take care of the commoners' rebellion.

"General, I highly doubt if your clan master will still be the daimyo of Hoshikagami and all the towns you have invaded by sunrise." Maria had again provoked to the samurai as she hurled a weighted boomerang to the leaving soldiers to break their legs.

"I thought you want this fight just between the two of us." Hannah questioned to the kunoichi as she saw the Iteza men fall on their way.

"That's precisely why I'm breaking their bones to prevent them from walking away so that they won't be able to call reinforcements." the ninja has responded to the samurai.

While Maria and Hannah started to battle, Van and Ruji continued to fight General Siefers and Zairin to prevent them from executing Prozen's orders to crush the town people's dissent.

"Your clan has a lot to answer for persecuting the people of Hoshikagami, Urawa, Ageo and all of the other towns you have invaded!" Van had mentioned in an enraged yet calm tone to Siefers.

"And you have a lot to answer to Prozen-sama once we brought this under control!" the samurai had answered to the ninja.

"The only one whom I answer to is Atsuhi-sama and his family." the jonin had responded as he slashed the general's wrist with his sword, forcing Siefers to drop his katana.

"We ninjas also have the craftsmanship for making swords as durable as those of you samurai." Van had provoked to the samurai as the later was trying to stop the bleeding caused by the injury.

"Damn you!" Siefers yelled as his left hand pulled the wakizashi from its scabbard and tried to slash the shinobi.

"Muda yo!*" the Byakutaka ninja calmly muttered as his chokuto hit the opening between the armor plates covering the samurai's legs, effectively slashing his limbs and rendering him unable to battle.

"I won't kill you but expect me to show you no mercy!" Van had said to the samurai. "Jiku, Ceasar, come here!" he called his wolf and tiger to his side.

"Now you'll be food for my pets." the Byakutaka master mentioned to the defeated samurai.

"No, please, don't do this!" Siefers had yelled in desperation as the other wolves, tigers, and bears followed the cue from the white eagle and its two companions.

"My, My! I never imagined Van-san's wrath for the Iteza clan to be that powerful he would not even hesitate to feed Prozen's men to our animals." Ruji said as he saw the other general being dragged and mauled by their animals.

"That Siefers is a fool! An extortionist and rapist like him deserve that kind of death." Zairin had muttered to Ruji.

"Now that's cold of you, General Zairin." Ruji had told the samurai.

"I'm in a completely different league from Eric, Marx, Siefers and Stinger, so don't compare me to them." Zairin had responded to his opponent.

"Can't fool me with those, general!" the Aoiroh master had answered as he delivered a powerful strike.

"I only joined his ranks in order to free my parents from him someday. Truthfully, I loathe him all since my youth!" the samurai had answered in return.

"If that's so, you should join us in our campaign." Ruji had responded to him.

"But my father and my mother…Prozen will…" Zairin had retorted.

"Don't worry. I'm sure my fellow ninja masters had released all Prozen's prisoners." the jonin had riposted.

For a few minutes, the general carefully weighed the ninjas' offer. Then he made his decision.

"Wakatta. I'll join you but make sure I'll see them and my son alive." the disillusioned samurai had replied.

"General Zairin, I can't believe you'll betray Prozen after all his generosity towards you!" Siefers had cursed to his fellow samurai.

"Prozen Gunther never showed any generosity towards my family!" Zairin had replied as he stabbed the other general in his lung, ending Siefer's life. "That bastard is just a curse to us." he continued.

"My, my! You and Van-san are more alike than what I had initially thought." Ruji muttered to the samurai.

Unexpectedly, a man in his early to mid fifties approached them as they turned towards his direction.

"Otoh-san, is that you?" the samurai had asked the man.

"Zairin, it's me, son!" his father had replied.

"I'm glad you're safe, but where's Okah-san?" Zairin had told him as the two reunited after a decade and a half of separation.

"Don't worry, jii-san. You're wife is now safe." Melissa had answered as she carried the woman on her back. "But you need to hurry out of here. Some 250 Iteza clan's men have arrived here and are taking the northeast street over there." the genin had warned.

"If you want to disable them, you should lure them here. It won't be a problem trapping them here since there are only two streets which lead in this part of the town and once we sealed their passages, they'll fall." Ruji had suggested.

"Melissa-chan, bring General Zairin's parents to where my mom and Hime are. Also, tell sensei to send some members of the rifle squad here." Van added.

"Hai!" the genin complied as she and the general's parents left the scene.

"Ruji-san, do you still have oil bottles left with you?" the Byakutaka master had asked his friend.

"Only ten." the Aoiroh master had answered.

"That will do." Van had responded.

"What are you planning, Van-san?" Zairin had asked the other ninja.

"Anata ni sugo misete kure." the Byakutaka leader had retorded.

A few minutes later, fifty of Krueger and Irvine's riflemen and archer ninjas joined the three of them after their squads had suppressed Prozen's men from their respective fields.

"Van-sama, what are we going to do now?" one of the riflemen asked him.

"People, while I lure those bastards here, set some bombs and trap nets underneath the passages of the incoming troops. Once they're below, set-off the explosives simultaneously and trigger the nets to entangle them. Shoot those who will attempt to either rescue their fellow Iteza men or retaliate for the ambush." the ninja master had answered to the sub captain-rank chuunins.

"Let me plant those explosives. I know where the irrigation ditches underneath the said passages are hidden." Zairin had told the ninjas.

"Then let's get moving. They won't waste a second to kill us." Ruji had answered as he and their comrades started to plant the landmines.

Van meanwhile started to lure the Iteza soldiers to the predetermined course.

"That's it. Just keep on following me!" the jonin had thought, carefully avoiding the bullets and arrows being shot at him. A bullet then flew near his right arm but only managed to tear a portion of his sleeves, but his left shoulder and right knee were cut quite deeply by an arrow's blade.

"They got me!" Van thought as he ate the petals of the sidon bush's flowers that he had brought along with him. At the same time he signaled to his hiding comrades that their adversaries have walked into their trap.

As soon as all the Iteza warriors had been lured to the sniper's area, some of the ninjas blew up the explosives planted in the underground ditches, sealing their opponents' escape route while. At the same time, their comrade shinobi began triggered the trap nets to entangle the Iteza clan's men and shot those who tried to counter and release their trapped fellows.

"Van-san, You did quite a horrifying move considering you have to ensure that you won't get hit by any of those bullets and arrows!" Zairin had said to him.

Some of them got me, but nothing serious about those. The sidon bush's flowes did came in handy here." Van has replied to their new comrade.

"It's all a part of the ninjas' lives." Ruji had intervened.

"what van-sama wanted to show you is he could take care of them!" Melissa had responded.

The ambush worked but a good portion of Van and Ruji's men had been seriously shot by the Iteza men who have avoided being captured by the traps in their attempt to counter the ambush. Krueger and Irvine then took care of the injured riflemen while Van and Ruji disabled the remaining untrapped Iteza warriors. Then, the Byakutaka and the Aoiroh masters saw a lieutenant of Eric who managed to evade the bullets and arrows being shot by Van's riflemen and archers and making his way to his general while the rest of the troops were neutralized.

"You won't get away unhurt!" Van had thought as he hurled a lighted black powder canister at the soldier, setting his armor in flames.

"That a little brutal, Van-sama!" Melissa had mentioned to her master.

"No! I would not kill my enemies, they'll only receive a lifetime torment." the Byakutaka master had riposted to his protégé.

"Van-san is right. That samurai should be able to recover from those burns unless his general will kill him first." Ruji had added.

"Considering General Eric's demeanor, I'm sure that is what will happen." Zairin had complimented to Ruji.

"Even if we leave him unharmed, he's already finished." Van had complimented to Zairin.

At Eric's site, Zairin's prediction has been proven correct as the general slashed and stabbed the lower ranking samurai after receiving his report.

"You deserve that for letting the ninjas deceive and capture members of your group!" the samurai general had thought.

XOXOXOXOXO

(Note: * literally means "no good", "no use")


	10. Prolonged Deadlock And then

Chapter 10: Chōjikan no Ikidzumari! Soshite…. (Prolonged Deadlock! And then….)

As the battle between the Iteza clan and the combines forces of Hoshikagami's commoners and the five ninja tribes from Nagano and Niigata, Natalie managed to escape and inform their clan's seven hundred soldiers in the recently-conquered Kuyuka.

"Iteza-gun, the people of Hoshikagami and the ninjas of Nagano have made a concerted rebellion against our clan's rule. We now have to crush them without mercy for defying us!" Proen's daughter chanted to her men.

Upon hearing the heir's call, the reserve soldiers took their arms and readied themselves for a long battle ahead.

"Teme wa Freiheit! I'll behead you and your masters for having our own men rape me!" Natalie had thought as she glanced her reflection in the katana.

The Iteza reserve army then left Kuyuka and headed to Hoshikagami as fast as they could.

At Bit and Naomi's location, Seijuro and his men have managed to tilt the situation to their favor, but some of his men had been injured somewhat seriously. The Yamabuki master himself also sustained injuries, but are not life-threatening.

"Bit-san, Naomi-san, bring our downed comrades to the medic ninjas. We can't let them die if we are to permanently crush the Iteza clan!" the ninja master has commanded to the chuunins.

"Seijuro-sama, how about you?" Bit asked to his superior.

"Don't worry about me. What is more important is the lives of our men." Seijuro has replied to the two chuunins. "All of you, be on your guard! I'm sure Prozen still has some soldiers left in the other towns he had conquered" he told his other men as he thought of the possibility of counter attack from additional soldiers arriving from other nearby towns.

At about two and a half hours since the rebellion started, the combined forces of the ninjas and Hoshikagami's commoners have achieved the advantage in the battle against the Iteza clan. But their advantage was just slightly significant due to the heavy losses both sides have sustained. Meanwhile, Irvine, upon Ruji's request, arrived in Karl and Moonbay's location to check on the condition of the common citizens that they have organized and see if they needed additional help from their other comrades. Just as his fellow ninja masters have suspected, the fighting capacity of Moonbay and Karl's group was reduced to just half of its original force due to the number of commoners who had been severely wounded.

"This is not very good, Karl-san! Many of our town's people have suffered grave injuries and cannot continue to fight." Moonbay told the samurai.

"I know! Let's just hope that this is the last of the Iteza army so that they may have some rest." the blond samurai had riposted.

Then Natalie and their reserve men came to the town and started to fight the already battle-worn rebels.

"This is bad! They still have seven hundred men at their disposal, and many of your men and your town's people could no longer battle for tonight!" Raven told Karl and Moonbay.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Moonbay questioned to the Benitora master.

"Me and my men will continue to fight them." Raven had answered.

"But your men are also exhausted already." Karl has mentioned to the ninja master.

As the battle started to shift away from their advantage, Irvine then remembered his secret plan to regain the edge in the rebellion.

"Raven-san, can you hold back the Iteza clan's reserve army for a few more hours?" Irvine asked his fellow shinobi.

"What do you mean?" the onyx-haired jonin answered in return.

"Catherine-san asked her tribe elders four days ago if they would join our rebellion. She said that her tribe agreed but the soonest their forces would be able to come here would be around midnight." the grey-haired warrior had answered.

On Van and Ruji's location, news of the back-up Iteza soldiers caught the two ninja masters by surprise. The two of them were contemplating about what they should do since the rebel's offensive forces have now been reduced to half.

"Van-san, according to our comrades in other locations of the town, about seven hundred Iteza clan soldiers have arrived here. If this is true, then what will happen is…" Ruji told his fellow ninja master when he was interrupted by Zairin.

"A stalemate!" Even though you men are exceptionally well-trained and are being helped by this town's common people, the number of Prozen's remaining men and the number of the commoners and ninjas who could still fight will neutralize one another." the samurai has answered.

"No! We can't afford that; the citizens of Hoshikagami can't afford that! We must crush them at all cost!" the Byakutaka master has replied to the samurai as he was provoked by the scenario that Zairin has suggested.

"But Van-san, your comrades and the commoners here are already exhausted!" Zairin continued.

"No, he is right. If we need to die in order to free the citizens here as well as in other towns Prozen had conquered, we would be more than willing to do that!" Dr. D told them as he and some locals approached the wounded ninjas in order to treat them.

"We have to fight for our freedom until our last breath!" one of the commoners then said in response as the other townspeople who accompanied them yelled in agreement.

"What do you plan to do now, Van-san?" Zairin questioned to Van.

"I must go directly to the root. Kill Prozen, and the rest of Iteza will fall!" the ninja master has riposted.

"I'll help you, Van-san!" Ruji told his fellow ninja master.

"No, you need to stay here to guide our men and Atsushi-sama's people. Fighting Prozen is simply too personal for me." Byakutaka master has retorted.

"Van, don't be reckless. I'm sure Prozen is being surrounded by several of his clan's soldiers at this moment." Krueger reminded to his former student. "Don't worry. Me and the sniper genins and chuunins could handle them by ourselves." he continued.

Van then regained his composure and accepted his friend's assistance.

Meanwhile, Dan and Atsushi had just finished defeating the underground prison complex guards Prozen had sent there. Upon coming out of the dungeon, they quickly headed to where Prozen was.

"So you and your ninja friend managed to come out of that prison alive." the silver-haired man greeted to the two men.

"Cursed junk, your mouth fouls the air here!" Dan swore to his master's adversary.

"Dan, let me handle him. He is mine." Atsushi asked to his best friend.

"You still haven't recovered, Atsushi-sama." the ninja master protested.

"Your ever-faithful servant is right, Atsushi. You can't win against me in your weakened condition but I doubt if he'll fare better." Prozen taunted to the two men.

Dan and Atsushi then came rushing towards Prozen with their swords swinging at him, but one of Prozen's generals blocked Atsushi's sword.

"You have to face me first before you could help your friend against Prozen-sama!" Marx told Fiona's father.

"My people and my family have suffered from your master's tyranny for five years. I won't let his continue for any longer." the daimyo has retorted as the two clashed swords with each other.

While Atsushi and Marx dueled, Dan and Prozen engaged each other in a one-on-one fight.

"So you and Atsushi are still pretty strong even after being beaten up inside that jail for five years!" the dictator said to Dan.

"You need a lot more than what you did to weaken me beyond defiance!" Van's father replied as his nodachi clashed with Prozen's katana.

"You know, your son surely deserves to be praised for having the courage for ruining the peace that my clan has built. Sadly, he still must be punished for fearlessly defying me!" the tyrant told his opponent as he went for another strike.

"You and your minions have only sown terror, injustice, and disorder to people of this town and all the other places you have conquered!" Dan had responded to the silver-haired samurai.

As the uprising continued deeper into the night, the struggle between the rebel's forces and the Iteza clan's soldiers came to a stalemate just as Zairin predicted. Raven's troops have suffered severe damages but still managed to keep the additional Iteza men from advancing. The same situation could also be said for the troops under Krueger, Seijuro, Rosso, and Karl.

"If this drags on, the battle will start to tilt to our disadvantage!" Irvine said to Raven as he downed another Iteza soldier.

"Where is the back-up forces from Aichi? Don't tell me the ninjas from the Mikankujira tribe have come across Prozen's men along the way!"

"I hope that is not the case. But if it is, then we ourselves must finish this once and for all!" Aoiroh jonin has replied to the Benitora master.

Casualties kept piling up on both sides. While the Iteza clan mostly lost in number of soldiers, the rebels mainly lost on the quality of the soldiers.

"Shubaltz-san, the citizens here cannot continue to fight in our current condition! We need additional forces!" Moonbay yelled as she turned her attention to taking care of her wounded town's folk.

"Moonbay-san, we must proceed. I would rather die than be under that beast again!" said of the commoners whom she was attending to.

"But can't you see, your body cannot continue!" Fiona's maidservant has answered to her.

Another hour had passed. Upon reaching ten o' clock in the evening, the tides of war has shifted. The Iteza clan has gained a considerable advantage as the ninjas and the citizens of Hoshikagami got exhausted and those of them who could still fight have been greatly reduced. Some of the commoners were beginning to lose hope and were thinking of committing suicide. But just as things were becoming bleak, the promise from Aichi prefecture suddenly came.

"Sorry for being late, Irvine-san! We went first to Kuyuka and Ageo to ensure that Prozen no longer have any reserve soldiers left." a Mikankujira jonin mentioned to the Aoiroh leader.

"I thought you were already ambushed by the Iteza clan." Irvine has riposted. "How many of you came here?" he continued.

"There are one hundred twenty five of us here. That is more than enough to regain the battle to our favor!" another Mikankujira jonin had complimented.

Minutes after the arrival of the Aichi prefecture ninjas, the rebellion began to return to the rebel's advantage. Natalie was completely caught off-guard that her clan's remaining two hundred soldiers had been decimated by the Mikankujira when they went to Ageo before heading to Hoshikagami.

"Sou na! I can't let our clan's reign end now!" Prozen's daughter had murmured as she watched the fall of the Iteza's remaining troops.

"Natalie-sama, let's escape now! We no longer have the strength needed to resist the rebels." a samurai told to his master.

"We would not retreat! My father worked for the clan's glory, and I will not let his honor be trampled by the former daimyo's people!" the young woman said to her servant before seeing Fiona and her mother being at a street nearby. She then chased them to where they were heading.

"It's been five years since I last saw you, little princess!" Natalie called to Fiona's attention. "your lover started all of this, right?" she added.

"So what if he did! He is just heeding my people's call for freedom!" she had answered with strength in her purplish-red eyes.

"You dare defy us? Unforgivable!" Natalie shouted as she swung her sword to Fiona.

"Your land? This state belongs to neither to you nor to me, but to my people!" Fiona had retorted as she used the ninja-ken that Maria had given to her earlier to block and counter the attack.

"Even though Van-kun never taught me directly on how to fight, watching him train has given me knowledge in fighting with swords." the young lady said as she swept back her greenish-blond hair to have a better vision of her opponent.

"Fiona!" Isami called on her daughter.

"Don't worry, mom, I can handle her-especially now that Van-kun and our friends are fighting to free our people!" Fiona told her mother.

"You know, Eric-san doesn't like defiant girls…I wonder why he still sees you as his price." Natalie insulted to her.

"For raping helpless girls, even a pig stands much higher than him!" Van's fiancée riposted as she clashed swords with her.

Just at that moment, Karen rejoined Isami and Fiona. Upon seeing that her soon to be daughter-in-law was getting overpowered, Karen immediately flung a sharpened kunai at Prozen's daughter.

"Ughh, what the hell!" Natalie cursed as she felt the blade penetrate her backbones.

"I won't let you lay a finger to my son's future wife!" the kunoichi told her.

"Bastard!" Prozen's daughter yelled to her when Fiona then stabbed her in the thigh.

"I can't believe you could get that violent, my child." Isami mentioned to her daughter.

"Don't worry, she would be able to survive that injury, but she would no longer be able to fight back." Karen said in response to Isami. "If I were you, I'll leave to your people to decide her fate." she added.

In another site of the town, Atsushi had managed to overpower Marx. However, Dan has suffered relatively major injuries and was about to be overpowered by Prozen when Atsushi suddenly slashed their adversary in the chest. The chest armor was split into two as it was pierced by the sharpness of the sword's blade.

"Atsushi! Omae…!" the silver-haired general yelled at the daimyo as he turned his attention to his sworn enemy.

Atsushi then slashed at Prozen's thigh, causing him to collapse.

"You have nowhere to go now, Prozen!" Dan muttered coldly as he stabbed the dictator's hand to the ground with his nodachi.

Van and Ruji then arrived just as Prozen was disabled by his father.

"Dad, you look pretty tattered up." the young ninja master mentioned to his father as he treated the injuries of the older ninja master.

"Don't worry, son. I won't die from these injuries. You should treat Atsushi-sama's wounds first." Dan commanded to his successor.

Van then promptly administered the necessary treatment for the daimyo's wounds before returning to treating his father's injuries.

Unknown to Van, Eric followed him from a relative distance and aimed his bow and arrow at him.

"If you had not been born, I would have been favored by Fiona's parents for her." the samurai said to himself as he released the arrow just as Van finished taking care of his father's injuries.

"Van-kun, look out!" Atsushi called to his future son-in-law as he saw Eric setting the arrow flying to the young ninja master's direction.

Ruji then placed himself between Van and Eric and took the arrow shot in his chest.

"Ruji-san!" Van yelled to his fellow ninja master as he saw him got hit.

"Van, I can manage this!" Ruji said to his friend as he tried to pull the arrow out of his chest.

Van then stood up and faced Eric's direction.

"Dad, please take care of Ruji. I have one more demon to kill!" the younger Byakutaka master told his father as he pulled the nodachi that pinned Prozen's hand on the ground only to stab it again with his kanata-type ninja-ken.

"Van, please be careful. Promise me you'll return alive." Dan demanded to his son.

"I will. Fiona-hime already made me promise that. I will never fail you, especially hime." Van retorted to his Dan.

"Eric, you cursed junk!" Van yelled as he chased the envious samurai to a house that had just caught fire.

"Koko de owarimashō, Horse Face!" the ninja master told his adversary as they faced each other one on one.

"I've been waiting for this fight, ninja!" the wicked samurai answered to Van.


	11. Koko de Funsō wo Owarimashō!

Chapter 11: Koko de Funsō wo Owarimashō! Hikari no Ninja tai Yami no Samurai

(We'll End Our Dispute Here! Ninja of Light against Samurai of Darkness)

At some distance from Atsuhi, Dan, and Ruji's location, Van and Eric faced-off against each other inside a house that has started to catch flames from the nearby military stations' burning weapons warehouse.

"Van-san, you have always been a thorn to our side!" Eric said to Van as he drew his katana. "But you're going to die now." he added.

"Hoshikagami, Ageo, Kumagaya, Urawa, and Kuyuka have suffered under your masters! I won't let him to continue persecuting the people of those towns, especially Atsushi-sama's family and my dad and mom!" the ninja master responded to Prozen's general.

"Just like your father, you still don't know how to fear even when death stares you in the face. Seeing that you have a mostly identical appearance and attitude to your father agitates me." Prozen's henchman taunted to Van.

"No matter how potent a snake's venom is, he will not be able to use that when his head is crushed by the talons of an eagle flying from the direction of the sun's blinding light." Van has replied.

"But even a tiger or a wolf can be killed with a single bite from a viper, just as what is about to happen to your friend there." Eric had taunted to Atsushi's servant.

Provoked, Van then hurled some shurikens at Eric to try to distract his attention.

"Hmmp, that won't work here!" the samurai said as he blocked the projectiles that came to him.

"Yet you also didn't notice my approach, horse-face!" the young ninja master responded as he slashed his sword at Eric's belly.

Eric narrowly avoided being cut by Van's surprise assault as the armor there prevented any injury but it was split in half as the result.

"Bastard ninja, don't make a fool out of me!" the samurai said to him as his vision darkened. "I'll now show you my most horrifying technique, a dance that will torture and kill your body without you shedding a single drop of blood until the killing blow." he added.

"What does that mean? In any case, I must take him seriously!" Van though as he readied himself for any attack that Eric might do.

Eric then set a barrage of slashes and stabs to Van, which the latter promptly block. However, one stab managed to evade his blockade and cut him in his left forearm.

"Nani?" the Byakutaka master had thought as he looked at his wound.

"Surprised? I told you, my technique inflicts wounds to my targets without making them bleed at first. That way, they won't even see that their body is already in pain." Prozen's lackey mocked to Van. "I refer to this as the Yamigiba no Mae since one cannot feel a viper biting him, especially in the dark." the samurai added.

"Dance of the Dark Fang? Jii-san once mentioned that samurai technique to me. It was forbidden among the samurai here to use it since it causes immense pain to the target as all the wounds inflicted will bleed simultaneously on the fiftieth successful hit." Fiona's partner had thought.

Meanwhile, Dan and Atsushi were still in the location where Van had left them. The two of them tended to Ruji's shot in order to save his life.

"Dan-dono, let me go there. Your son might need my help." the Aoiroh master told to his elder as he tried to combat the pain of the arrow shot.

"No, you must stay here so that your shot wound will be properly tended. You would not survive if you continue to fight in your condition." the older ninja master has replied to him.

"Shikashi…" Ruji answered to him.

"Ruji-kun, just before my son left, he looked at my eyes in the way that tells me we should let him fight Eric alone. He is telling me that he wants to personally make his sworn adversary accountable for all his atrocities." Dan had responded to him.

A few moments later, Isami, Fiona, and Karen arrived at where Dan, Atsuhi, and Ruji had been.

"Ruji-kun, who did that to you?" Fiona asked her partner's friend as the latter struggled in pain.

"That demon samurai Eric, isn't it?" Karen has interjected.

"No doubt. I saw him myself as he tried to shoot Van-kun, but Ruji-kun placed himself in the path of the arrow and took the hit instead." Atsushi has mentioned in response.

Fiona then worried about the situation of her future husband as she and Karen helped in taking care of the Aoiroh ninja's wounds.

"God, please let Van-kun return alive and well to us. I haven't yet been able to serve him in return for taking care of me." the princess prayed silently.

Isami then noticed the very worried look in her youngest daughter's face and embraced her.

"Fiona, I know that you're praying for Van's safe return, but you should also have confidence in yourself that he will come back to you alive." Isami told the young lady.

"Hmph, I'm not so sure about that. Eric-san has prepared something to kill that rebel!" Prozen then said to agitate the ninjas and the feudal family.

"Urusai, aho ga!" Dan yelled in response as he punched the dictator in the head.

"Who do you think is the stupid one? Me, or your son facing Eric inside that burning house?" the silver-haired man continued to taunt to them.

Atsushi then thrust the ninja-ken that had the tyrant's hand stabbed to the ground while Dan delivered an even more powerful punch on his head again.

"This is what happens if you keep raising your hubris and stupidity before us." the older Byakutaka master muttered to Iteza clan's leader.

Van and Eric then continued their clash of swords. The two combatants appear to be of equal strength. Neither of them were willing to let the other gain an advantage. But their motives are worlds apart. One is fighting for the liberty of his masters' people, the other is fighting to prop his pride. Van was able to slash some more of Eric's armor in half while some of the latter's slashes managed to pierce the side of the former's right and left shanks, as well as his left upper arm.

"Mazui!* Horse-face is trying to prevent me from moving to another spot by using deep slashes to pierce my shanks and my arms!" the Byakutaka master had reflected as he took a momentary look at the injuries he had sustained at that point. Clearly, his situation looked no good.

The flame in the house burned even more vigorously. Both combatants knew that it would only be a matter of minutes before the complete immolation of the house where they were fighting.

"I must finish this fight now! I must win for the sake of all the people here!" Van murmured to himself as he ignored the pain that his body felt from the cuts he had received.

"Senko, you would have been better off if you haven't helped this town's commoners in their rebellion against Prozen-sama. But spending your strength in fighting for this town's people agaist the Iteza clan before facing the samurai you loathe the most guarantees your death in that samurai's hands!" Eric told him as he swung his katana to the young ninja master.

Van then tried to block the attack, but the force of the samurai's swing was too great for him to successfully resist that his nodachi came flying away from his hand and his sword's blade got stuck to a wall.

"You are no good now, Senko. In the end, the viper's venom snuffed the overpowering tiger!" Eric declared as he lifted his arm to strike his opponent down.

The Byakutaka leader then evaded the attack. Eric then promptly followed with a fury of swings and stabs as Van tried to evade each and every strike. However, his injuries hampered him from moving very fast in order for him to retrieve his sword.

Van sustained some more cuts in the arms as Eric's katana managed to hit him.

"Three more hits and it would be instant death for you!" the samurai told Van as the ninja was getting very exhausted from the additional injuries he had sustained.

"Do they hurt? I certainly hope so, Flash Tiger!" Eric asked in an insulting manner.

"No matter how much my wounds hurt, as long as the people here are fighting for their freedom, neither will I lose!" the young ninja master riposted as he hurled a light bomb to his opponent.

"Using the light to hide yourself? That's an old trick!" the samurai whispered as he shielded his eyes from the blinding light.

"Aho ga!** Don't take your eyes away from your opponent." Fiona's ninja responded as he punched Eric's face with his right fist.

Van's counterattack has taken the samurai by surprise. His fist hit Eric's face with a force that broke the latter's nose bridge and made the samurai lose his sense of balance. While Eric was still trying to recover from the punch he received, the Byakutaka master then took the chance to retrieve his chokuto from the nearby wall.

Some burning embers were already falling in one corner of the house they were in.

"Unforgivable!" Eric shouted as he tried to stab Van while he was busy drawing his sword from the wooden wall.

Van then managed to pull out his sword just in time to block the samurai's attack.

"I worked hard to become a samurai worthy of service for the Lynette family, but ever since you came in their service Atsushi, Isami, Kanata, and most of all Fiona had never taken notice of me! More insulting is when I learned that Atsushi had already given Fiona to your father to become your wife. You, your parents, and Fiona's parents have only caused me disgrace! So now you'll pay for their mistakes with your life." Eric said to his opponent as they continued to clash swords.

"You don't know anything about the friendship of Atsushi-sama and my dad! My dad has always served him as a faithful ninja ever since their childhood. And for all the prowess he possesses, he never thought of raising his pride nor demanded that a member of the Lynette family to be given us his children to marry. No wonder if Atsushi-sama and Isami-sama themselves made the move to have Fiona hime-sama and me be married together." Van has retorted to Eric as he countered his moves.

"Don't talk shit! You clans of mercenaries are nothing more than a scum to the lands and people of this country. The samurai class should be the rightful armies of the daimyos ruling in different states." Eric said begrudgingly to his opponent as another strike injured Van, this time in his lower right arm.

"Of all the samurai I have encountered, you are the most abominable one! Not all ninjas are assassins for hire like the ones you used against us. Our allies remain completely loyal to the clans of the daimyos whom we have vowed to protect!" the young ninja master had countered as he managed to inflict a cut at Eric's eye.

The samurai then immediately placed one of his hands to his cut in order to try to stop the bleeding. As his attention was drawn to his wound, Van then took the chance and repeatedly hit him with his bare fists.

"These fists are for Fiona-hime, Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama, Kanta-sama, Ruji-san, for Kotona-san's sister whom you have raped, and all the people in the towns that have suffered under you and Prozen!" the ninja said as he relentlessly punched the samurai in various parts of the latter's body, especially in the face and belly.

An enraged Van continued to rain punches on Eric until the samurai could no longer continue to fight due to exhaustion and pain. Fiona's partner was breathing heavily as he was recovering his stamina after he beat Prozen's general.

"Damn…." Eric murmured as he tried to crawl towards the ninja.

"Atsushi-sama and his people are victorious. You lost!" Van mentioned as he pointed his sword to his adversary.

"What are you waiting for? Finish me now, Senko!" the samurai demanded to the shinobi.

The Byakutaka master then raised his sword and placed it back inside its scabbard.

"Why don't you kill me yet?" Eric demanded to him.

"I realized just a while ago that if I did as you say, it would make me a murderer just like you and Prozen. It would be better to let the citizen's of this town to decide your fate." the shinobi had retorted to him.

"Do you want to trample on the tradition that we samurai follow when we lose?" Prozen's man asked him as he breathed laboriously.

"No. Desiring to end your life after a defeat is cowardice. It means you don't want to answer for the atrocities that your master and you have committed to Atsushi-sama's family, people, and the citizens of other estates Prozen has conquered." Fiona's partner had retorted to him. "We ninjas are different. Even if we are defeated, we never waiver in our resolve to faithfully protect our masters. What is important is that we continue to serve and protect our masters' lives no matter what the results of our battles are." Van added.

"How short-sighted!" the samurai answered in defiance.

"Your eyes have been blinded by the darkness of envy for such a long time you no longer want the light of truth to restore your vision! " the jonin has riposted. "I too was once blinded by darkness of revenge when I first thought you had my parents killed, but after learning that they are still alive, my vision has been cleared by the light-that I'm fighting for the lives and freedom of the people of Hoshikagami, my friends, and my loved ones. Colectively, our power is strong enough to overthrow Prozen's dictatorship." he continued.

Eric then managed to grip his katana with the final ounce of strength remaining in him.

"Hmmp, I concede that you won here. But if I'm going to die in hell, I won't let you savor your victory for long!" the samurai shouted as he deeply slashed Van just above his left knee before stabbing himself in the heart.

The attack had taken Atsushi's servant by surprise as he did not expect his enemy to still have enough strength for one final attack. Van then fell on his right knee in pain as he looked at his wound.

"Now, none of us will have Fiona-san!" Eric murmured as he breathed his last.

"Just die in hell alone, cursed junk!" Van muttered as he placed his hands on his last wound to try to stop the bleeding.

He then tore some strips of cloth from his sleeves and used them to cover of his final slash. However, as soon as Van had stopped the bleeding, he heard a crackling sound from above him. Looking up, the second floor of the burning house was starting to cave in upon him and the now life-less corpse of Eric.

"Sumanai, hime. I guess I can't return to you alive." the lad thought as he closed his eyes and prepared himself for death.

Just as Van was about to be hit by the burning logs, another shinobi came into the burning house and chopped the falling material, shielding the young ninja master from being crushed.

"As long as I have not yet defeated you permanently, you still cannot die." Raven said to him as he placed Van's arm on his shoulder and helped him get back on his feet.

"Arigato, Raven-san. If it wasn't for you, both Eric and me would have been dead by this moment." the Byakutaka leader mentioned in response as the two of them walked out of the burning edifice.

From the safe distance, Dan, Karen, and the Lynette family looked on the direction of Van and Eric's final battle. For thirty minutes, they have waited anxiously for the outcome of the battle. Finally, Fiona saw the victorious shadow of her fiancé being partially supported by his rival's shoulder.

"Van-kun, you're alive!" Fiona called out as she rushed towards Van and embraced him.

"Thank God for granting your wishes to Him by having Raven as my rival!" her ninja has replied as he wiped her tears from her eyes.

"And a good ninja doesn't need to be persuaded by God to save a good rival from death so that they may continue to make each other stronger." the Benitora leader have riposted.

"Have you defeated Eric?" Kanata asked his future borther-in-law.

"Hai, but he committed seppuku after he conceded defeat in an attempt to escape the judgement of your citizens." the jonin has replied.

"Well done, son. You surely have surpassed me by taking leadership of our tribe in our absence while you were still a chuunin and for returning the freedom of Hashikagami and the other towns conquered by Prozen by crushing the Iteza army! Your mother and me are truly proud of you!" Dan mentioned to his son as he was still embracing his soon to be wife.

"Van, thank you for taking care of my youngest imohto. You are more than worthy to be her husband." Kanata greeted to the lad.

"Just as my wife and I have always believed, you have always remained faithful to our people and even when all the odds are against you, your persistence never wavered. You are a true Tokagure ninja." Atsushi congratulated to his best friend's son.

"Arigato, minna! Thanks for lending me your strength. I wouldn't be able to overthrow the dictator without the help of everyone here, commoners, ninjas, doctors, and samurai alike." Van then responded to his comrades when he suddenly remembered Ruji's condition.

"How is Ruji-san doing now?" the lad asked them.

"Fiona and I have taken care of Ruji's chest shot. He would be able to survive as long as the wound would be properly taken care of." Karen retorted to him.

"How is Rhys nee-san?" Fiona then asked suddenly.

"She is having a slight fever, so I've left her in the head village of Benitora." Raven answered to the young lady.

Van then let go of Fiona and bowed down before her parents and her older brother.

"Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama, Kanata-sama, sorry for ordering a few of our men to burn down some of the important edifices here such as the military stations and weapons storage houses. It was the only way we thought that could ensure Prozen's numerically superior army will be seriously disadvantaged in this rebellion." the young ninja master apologized to his masters.

"Van-kun, you should not apologize for that. Military stations and weapons storage houses could easily be rebuilt and restocked. People's lives, however, may take years before they could return to normal." Isami have responded to him.

"By the way, you and Fiona are about to turn eighteen in towards the end of the coming winter. That means it would not be long before we will have you marry our daughter." Atsushi interjected as his daughter blushed at her father's suggestion.

Prozen then tried to remove the sword that was keeping his hand firmly stabbed to the ground in a final desperate attempt to attack Atsushi but Kanata noticed him and kicked Prozen in his face.

"After five years, I finally get to return what you had done to me!" the young man provoked to him. "Nevertheless, our people will be the ones who will decide the appropriate punishment for your five years of tyranny." he added.

Atsushi then placed his hand on Van's shoulders and gazed at the lad's eyes.

"Van, I'm sure that you will become a great daimyo of Hoshikagami. I want you to become my successor." the daimyo said to him.

"My father is right. You certainly have all the traits of an effective leader." Kanata mentioned in support of his father's decision.

"Arigato gozai masu, Atsushi-sama, Kanata-sama, but I cannot accept your offer. You have already rewarded me by having Fiona-hime engaged to be my wife. What's more, I'm needed by my tribe as its head master." Van has answered honestly in a polite manner. "Kanata-sama, you are much more deserving to be the next daimyo of Hoshikagami, so please, take the honor that is rightfully yours." he continued as he faced Fiona and Rhys' aniki.

"If you insist your wish, so be it. My son will succeed me as the next daimyo." Atsushi has responded in turn.

XOXOXOXOXO

Note:

* means "not good"

** means "stupid, moron, crazy, fool; synonymous with the term "baka"(in the Kansai region of central Japan, "aho" is usually construed as a joke expression while "baka" has a rather offensive intention. But for people around Tokyo area, it is "aho" which has the offensive connotation. Nearly every character here mostly use the Tokyo dialect).


	12. Naori

Chapter 12: Naori (Recovery)

The morning after the rebellion, Fiona helped Van in disinfecting and covering his wounds. Even though her ninja partner suffered a lot of relatively serious injuries, he was able to remain in one piece.

"Ne, Van-kun, do you still remember what you had promised to me five years ago?" the young lady asked her fiancé.

"Hai. I said that when the day your people regain their freedom comes, I will cut my hair short." the jonin has responded. "Now that that day has come, it's time for me to fulfill that promise." he continued.

Van then immediately cut the hair at the back of his head, which he had kept in braid for the past five years, shortening its length to reach down only at his upper nape.

"Van-kun, that's how your hair was when you confessed that you love me at the central park. I admire that look!" the princess murmured as she giggled.

"Well, it would only be few weeks before we turn eighteen. And I'll ensure that you will become the most joyful princess in the planet once you became my wife." the lad ninja master has replied.

"And I can't wait to become the right hand of my captain!" the daimyo's daughter riposted.

Maria then approached the two of them at the balcony of their tribe's meeting hall.

"When is my otohtoh and his hime are planning to get married?" the kunoichi asked the two of them.

"On February 20." answered the daimyo's daughter.

"That's two weeks after your eighteenth birthday and almost a month after Van turned eighteen." Maria had mentioned in return.

"It is so in order for us to be fully prepared, nee-san." the jonin said in connection. "Also, we are planning to live at our tribe's northwest village in order for me to forge even stronger ties with the shinobi tribes of Niigata." he added.

"I think that's a very wise decision since without the Niigata tribes, Prozen might have taken over Nagano." his sister commented. "Speaking about Prozen, Atsushi-sama have decided that the commoners of Hoshikagami will be the ones who will decide how should he be punished a week from now." she added.

"After all this time, dad still tries to consult the commoners before making a final decision based on the opinion of most of the people." Fiona murmured.

"And that is the reason why they want you to continue ruling them. Your family respects your subjects' will." Van replied to his soon to be wife as he brushed aside the two strands of hair in front of her forehead and kissed her there.

As Van and Fiona are discussing their plans for the future, Ruji meanwhile remained in serious yet gradually improving situation. He and Thomas had been placed in the same room, with Re Mi and Catherine tending to them respectively.

"Ruji, using your own body as a shield is so reckless of you!" the princess yelled at her partner.

"Sumimasen, Re Mi-hime…" the jonin answered but suddenly suffered a sharp pain in his chest.

The princess then quickly restrained the jonin to prevent him from further hurting himself.

"Hoi, Ruji-san, looks like you went through one hell of a fight, ne?" Thomas said to him.

"And you should have tried to escape when the opportunity was still there; otherwise your body would not have been bruised heavily like this, you jackass." Jamie had responded in defense of his superior.

"Teme yo!" the blond samurai answered in agitation to the chuunin.

"Tending to your patients means you should not say things that might offend them, Jamie-taichoh." Catherine replied to him.

"Saizo ni Iteza-gun wa ochimashita!" Thomas said as he calmed himself.

"We ninjas would not have been able to end Prozen's reign if it had not been for the help of the commoners and good samurai such as yourself." the persimmon-haired kunoichi commented to him. "Many of our men and Fiona-sama's citizens have either lost their lives or are severely injured in last night's rebellion. Still, more people's lives would have been destroyed if we did not stop Prozen from conquering other estates." she continued.

"Fiona-sama, where is she?" Thomas asked her.

"Well, she and Van-sama are having their intimate talk over there." the kunoichi answered.

Thomas then immediately got-up from his bed and walked out of the house they were in.

"Where are you going, Thomas-san?" Ruji asked the samurai.

"To where Fiona-hime is. Even though Van-san is the one she loves and is going to marry him, I still have to tell her that I also love her." the blond replied.

The samurai rushed to where Van and Fiona were having a little talk.

"Van-kun, how do you find the onigiri I cooked?" the young lady asked her partner.

"Fūmiyutaka desu!" the ninja has responded as he enjoyed the taste of the rice ball prepared by his princess.

"Hontoh ni?" Fiona asked in return.

"Hai!" the young man replied as he smiled back at her.

Van then noticed that Thomas has arrived to where he and Fiona were having their breakfast.

"Yo, Thomas-san, why don't you try some of hime's onigiri." the jonin told the samurai as he handed one to Thomas.

"Hai, arigato." the blond samurai answered.

As Fiona also took a bite from one of the onigiri she had cooked, she noticed the troubling look on Thomas' face.

"doushita, Thomas-san? Why aren't you still taking your breakfast?" the princess asked.

"Hmmp, I want to…" the samurai riposted.

"Want to what?" the young lady insisted.

Thomas tried to express his feeling but he was not sure as to how he should express them.

"Thomas-san, you should release yourself to the truth. You won't be able to stand strongly if you just keep all of your perspectives within yourself." Van commented to him. "I know that you want to say to hime, but it's better if you'll tell her yourself." he urged to the samurai.

The prodding of the ninja master finally gave the blond the courage he needed.

"Fiona-hime, you see, I also love you." Thomas confessed to her.

Fiona was quite surprised to hear the samurai's true feeling from him.

"But I also know that Van-san is the only one you love as your partner." he further said.

"Arigato, Thomas-san." the young lady responded. "True, I love Van-kun as my partner ever since we knew each other. He has been one of my best friends ever since that time. But I also love my other friends, including Moonbay, Re Mi, Ruji, Kotona, Maria, and you." Fiona continued.

The princess's statement made Thomas feel somewhat vindicated.

"Arigato…at least I knew you also value me." the blond replied. "As for you, Van-san, promise me that you'll always do everything to keep Fiona-hime well and joyful." he continued.

"You could count on me for that!" the jonin retorted.

Thomas then left the couple to continue their breakfast. He then returned to the medical barracks of the ninja town.

"So have you finally told Fiona-hime about your true feelings?" Catherine asked him.

"Hai. Even if Van-san is the one she loves, I'm still glad that she also likes me as a friend. I just wish her and Van-san to have a joyful relationship. I must admit, they were made perfectly just for each other." Thomas responded.

"Well, couples sometimes experience problems even in perfect relationships. What makes two people a perfect couple is when they don't allow their differences to get in the way of their relationship to each other." the kunoichi answered to him.

"Catherine-san, have you ever experienced falling in love?" the samurai asked her.

"Hai, but the person I love is relatively naïve when it comes to my feeling for him, so I simply keep my mouth shut." the persimmon-haired lady responded.

"To tell you the truth, Fiona-hime is not the only lady I love. There is another woman here who rivals her in my heart." Thomas told her.

"Who?" Catherine asked curiously.

Suddenly, Thomas pulled her towards him and kissed her lips for several seconds. Catherine was completely caught by surprise by what Thomas had done.

"Kimi wa!" the samurai answered to her.

"Sore honma?" the kunoichi asked in response.

"Hai. Actually, a few days after we first met, I was wondering if I also have interest in you. However, at the time I don't actually know whom between you and Fiona-hime I liked more so I decided that whoever would reciprocate my affection would be the one destined for me." he replied.

"For my part, I was content with simply loving you. At least I'm honest about my feelings. Maria-san taught me that when she took me as her protégé when aunt Karen and Dan-sama were subdued by Prozen's men five years ago." the orange-haired girl narrated.

"You mean Van-san and you are cousins?" Thomas said in bewilderment.

"Right. I haven't yet told you that Van-sama's mother is the younger sister of my dad and both of them came from a tribe of ninjas renowned in Aichi as the "secret dolphins of Narumi". Catherine riposted to him.

"Sou da ro! Now that explains why her accent has some hint of Kansai influence." the samurai thought as he returned to his rest.

At the cemetery near Hoshikagami's border, Raven visited the sepulcher of his deceased twin brother.

"Sumanai, Donnie. Had I not been so aggressive in my desire to be the next master of our tribe, you would still be alive." the onyx-haired jonin murmured.

"But at least you got general Kirt, didn't Joyce-sama?" Michael said to Raven.

"Sou desu. Unlike my rival who keeps his despised adversaries alive to give them an indefinite living hell, I prefer to kill my loathed enemies in an instant." the Benitora master riposted.

Raven then reminisced his battle a few hours earlier…

"Joyce-sama, our men cannot fight for much longer if this tide continues!" a chuunin told him.

"I have no qualms if you want to retreat now, just don't make me go with you until I butchered that samurai!" the ninja master told him.

"Butcher me? I don't think you could do that, shinobi." Kirk replied to the jonin.

"Koko de oretachi no tatakai wo owarimashō, Kirk-san!" the ninja responded to Prozen's samurai. "This is for my twin brother whom you killed, bastard!" he continued as he swung his nanigata to Kirk.

The samurai evaded but the jonin quickly followed with a barrage of stabs. For several minutes, thw two traded blows with each other. However, Raven was being overpowered more and more as the fight dragged on.

"Not bad for someone already exhausted. Unfortunately, you won't last long." Kirk taunted to Raven as his katana landed a slash on Rave's upper arm.

Raven's injury was serious enough that his left arm can no longer be used in providing additional force for his weapon's movements.

"Damn, this bastard is one tough guy. My next attack should kill him if I am to ensure Donnie's blood would be repaid." the ninja master thought as he tried to negate the pain of his injuries.

"You know, I loved the screams of your twin brother as I stabbed him when he used his own body as a shield to protect you." the samurai further taunted to him.

"He died an honorable death, being faithful to our master until his last breath. The same can't be said for what will happen to you torturing hundreds of commoners." Raven answered as he threw some shurikens and smoke bombs at his opponent's eyes.

"Smokescreen won't work on me, shinobi!" Kirk said arrogantly as he placed his sword back in its scabbard and tried to shoot Raven with his pistol.

The shots pierced a silhouette behind a veil of smoke. However, the bullets only hit the jonin's haori.

"Shit!" Prozen's general thought as Raven slashed his pistol-holding hand with his sword, then immediately locked his arms on the samurai's neck to prevent the latter from fighting back.

"My rival is like a tiger…He first torments his adversaries before having his subordinates finally kill them just as a tiger will toy first with its prey before letting its cubs deliver the killing bite. On the other hand, I'm more like a crocodile since I prefer to kill my prey right away!" the Benitora master told the samurai.

"Say your prayers before you vanish!" the ninja master whispered to his enemy.

"Daaaaaaaammmmmmmnnnnnnnn you!" Prozen's general shouted just as Raven severed his throat.

End of flashback…

"That samurai gave me one hell of a fight. But at least Donnie's blood has been repaid." the Benitora master responded to Van's protégé.

"Joyce-san, losing your family is hard. I have gone through the same experience." Zairin told Raven as he approached from behind.

"So what do you plan to do now, Zarin-san?" the ninja master asked to the samurai.

"Well, I would serve as one of Kanata-sama's court bodyguards. I will help the people of Hoshikagami rebuild their lives." the samurai replied as he carried his son on his shoulder.

"Otoh-san, does that mean you'll no longer be samurai?" Kotaro asked to Zairin.

"No, my child. I'll just correct the mistakes I did to the people of the Lynette family." the samurai retorted to his child.

At Hoshikagami, the citizens are busy repairing the damages that their town sustained during theprevious night's revolt that overthrew the Iteza clan's dictatorship and restored Atsushi's family as their leader.

"I still can't believe that Van-kun would rather stay as the master of his tribe rather than being the next daimyo of our estate." Kanata said to his parents.

"Now that you mention it, he showed at the same time both his pride in being the master of the Byakutaka tribe and his humility in being one of our ninjas." Atsushi replied to his son. "Anyway, Van-kun believes that you are the one best suited to rule the town and the estate of Hoshikagami, so do your best to surpass me." the daimyo continued.

"Speaking about Van-kun, he and Fiona are now planning their wedding, aren't they?" Isami commented on her husband.

"Well, it's their wedding so we should at leave the final decision about the detail to them." Atsushi retorted to his wife.

"I could hardly wait for us to have some little ninja call me granny." Isami continued saying in return.

"Relax. Van and Fiona will surely get there after they got married together." the daimyo riposted.

Moonbay then came to where Atsushi and Isami were having their conversation and told them her suggestions concerning Van and Fiona's coming wedding.

"Moonbay-san, it would be better if you are the one who would suggest that to them." Atsushi told his youngest daughter's handmaid.

Six weeks later, at the start of winter in late November, Prozen and the rest of his officers were brought out to the public square to be tried by the citizens of Hoshikagami and the other estates he had conquered. The Lynette family and his ministers, along with Rudolph and his subordinates, presented the Iteza army leaders to a public thirsting to see Prozen's punishment.

"Atsushi, you always allow your subjects decide your actions. You're weak!" the former dictator tried to taunt the daimyo.

"He is not weak at all! A daimyo's authority is legitimate only when he has the support and admiration of his subjects!" one commoner yelled in response as he hurled mud on Prozen's face.

"Having said that, it's up to you, my people, to deliver the punishment that you think is appropriate for the Iteza clan." Atsushi declared to the crowd.

Almost right away the commoners took their turns to punch Prozen in different parts of his body, with some spitting on his eyes. Likewise, his daughter was whipped by the women and children of the families whom they had persecuted.

"Whether they are men, animals, angels, or demons, all creatures will eventually die someday. At least, this demon will suffer a humiliating death for the atrocities he had done to our people." Rudolph told Atsushi.

As the two daimyo were starting a discussion, Zairin politely interrupted them to ask a favor.

"Atsushi-sama, Rudolph-sama, please allow me to deliver the killing blow to that stupid dog who persecuted my parents." the samurai asked from the daimyos.

"If that's what the people want!" Kanata has riposted.

The commoners immediately gave the signal to Zairin to finish Prozen off.

"Koko de owarimashō, Prozen Gunther!" the samurai told the already battered man as he drew his katana from its scabbard. "Make-inu, teme wa shini!* he yelled.

"All of you, damn you!" the silver-haired man shouted just before he was hit at the heart by Zairin's sword.

Silence then fell as Prozen was stabbed. Natalie was shocked beyond belief at her father's death. But it she did not have to wait for long as Zairin pointed his sword towards her chest and landed a killing blow on the from the signal of the commoners. Other ordinary townsfolk also executed the last surviving officials of Prozen as the leader of the Iteza clan and his heir breathed their last.

XOXOXOXOXO

(Note: * literally means "die, you bastard stupid dog")


	13. Yakusoku na Konza

Chapter 13: Yakusoku na Konza (Promised Wedding)

About four months have passed since the mid-autumn rebellion that ended the Iteza clan's reign took place. As the winter was finally giving way to spring, Fiona celebrated her eighteenth birthday a few weeks after Van turned eighteen. All the survivors have recovered enough to start rebuilding their lives.

"It seems like spring is coming rather early this year. How fast has it been since last October's liberation from the states conquered by Prozen's clan." Dan told his wife as he marveled at how his son did very well in their absence.

"Your pride must be soaring high seeing how our son has surpassed you." Karen replied to him.

"Any father would be proud to have a son who has successfully made his ambitions come true. Yet Van never even entertained the idea of succeeding my best friend as the next daimyo. I'm glad my son opted to continue leading our tribe." the ninja master has mentioned to his wife

"The bonsai at our indoor garden have started producing buds, so this winter must be beginning to wane." Van then told his parents while he shook-off the snow that has collected in his haori as he entered the main hall of his parent's house.

"You know, I keep on wondering why you always prefer to wear a sleeveless haori when our surroundings are covered by snow and ice." Dan asked him.

"I'm just training myself to be more patient, more persistent, and more resistant to outside temperatures. That's the essence of us ninjas, right?" his son retorted.

"Hoy, Van-sama, why do you always leave us alone in our training?" Michael asked his mentor as he yelled from their front yard.

"Michael, what rank in the chuunin level do you want to get promoted into? A captain or a sub captain?" the young ninja master responded.

"I want to become a captain at the age of twelve like you did." the lieutenant-ranked genin has riposted.

"Then you should be able to endure all the hardships I'll subject you to. I won't let Raven-san or to Ruji-san get far ahead of me when it comes to who is the better sensei." Van responded in turn.

"Van, you should still see to it that your subordinates are doing correctly what you taught them directly in person; otherwise, your comrades will leave you far behind. Look at Ruji-kun-he already had two captain-ranked chuunins under his tutelage; Raven had three now; your cousin Catherine has recently become a jonin under your nee-san's tutelage, while your still lag behind." Dan told his son.

"I believe that would have to wait, Dan-sama. Atsushi-sama said that he wants to see Van-san right-away." Zairin reported to his new master's best friend as he bowed down before the elder ninja master.

"This concerns my coming wedding with Fiona-hime, right?" Van asked his samurai friend.

"Mochiron!" he retorted.

"We'll I'll take over what you're doing; better heed Atsushi-sama's request first." Dan told his son.

"Hai." Van said as he put on his haori and started to follow Zairin.

"Dan-sama, Aunt Karen, let me do it. You should just spend this time for yourselves." Catherine said as she arrived to the Freiheit's compound.

"Thanks for your offer. By the way, congratulation for your promotion into a jonin. It seems your older cousin trained you very well." Van's mother greeted to her niece.

"Hai. Maria nee-san, I mean, sensei is a very good mentor. I mean compared to Van-sama, she allows her students to take all the time they want whenever they are training. Maria-sensei always emphasizes that the best way for us to learn is through our own experiences." the persimmon orange-haired medic kunoichi responded.

"Catherine, I heard from our daughter that you and that samurai Schwarz-san are now dating together. Is that for real?" Karen asked in response as she changed the topic.

"Hai. Thomas-san is a very nice man once you get to know him. Although at first he fell in love with Fiona-hime, he also realized that he loves me too… and even though Thomas-san still loves hime, he also knows that Van-sama and Fiona-hime's love for each other is much greater than he could grasp, so he has entrusted Van-sama to always love and care for her with all of his heart, mind, and power. As for us, Thomas-san has proven that he loves me more than he did for hime." Catherine answered candidly.

"He and his older brother are still serving under Sandaime Zeppelin-san, right?" Dan asked his wife's niece.

Catherine then nodded in response.

At the newly-rebuild section of the Lynette manor, Atsushi and Isami are readying themselves for their youngest child's coming wedding. They never thought back in their imprisonment days that they would be able to see their little daughter get married to her guardian shinobi.

"Fiona, how do you want to celebrate you coming of age?" Isami asked the young lady.

"Well, Van-kun and me have decided that we'll have our wedding exactly two weeks from now. We also decided to have our wedding to be a simple private gathering of family and close friends. But for today, I just want to spend my day with my captain." the blond lady had retorted to her mother.

"Hora! boku no imohto wa Van-kun natta kanzen na hime ga aru." Kanata said to Fiona as she entered the room their parents and his little sister were in.

"I don't know if I have indeed become a perfect princess for Van-kun. Nonetheless, I will marry him in order to achieve that if I still haven't reached that phase." Fiona has riposted to him.

"Fiona-sama, you are already perfect in his eyes, so you should carry yourself with pride." said Kanata's fiancée to her.

"Thanks for your support, Ueki-san." the damsel replied to the older maiden.

"If you'll go out with Van-kun today you better get yourself dressed. It won't be long before our future son-in-law will fetch you here." Atsushi urged to his youngest child.

Van arrived a little late than what the Lynette family had anticipated due to having to cross through thick snow and ice along the way.

"Sumimasen! I was not able to come earlier because I had to look out for my students as I train them for the coming chuunin exams." The young ninja master apologized to his soon to in-laws.

"That's no problem at all, Van-kun." Fiona responded.

By the way, I want to say something to you, Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama." the shinobi told his fiancée's parents.

"Sure, what is it?" Atsushi asked the lad.

"Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama, I know that you've already engaged Fiona-hime and me together. But out of respect, please allow me to ask for you blessing for my plans with your daughter." Van mentioned politely.

"You have our full consent and support, Van. Then, now, and always." Fiona's father had replied to him.

As soon as Van heard that, he turned his attention to his fiancée.

"Hime, I know that it's already obvious. Nevertheless, allow me to propose to you: will you marry me?" the young ninja master asked his partner as he gave her an expensive bracelet.

"I will, Van-kun, I will!" the young lady riposted in joy.

Van then carried his fiancée on both his arms and passionately kissed her lips.

"I guess we should leave them alone now." Kanata told to all the people who saw Van and Fiona there.

The Lynettes then left their hall right away as the two lovers broke their kiss to catch their breath.

"Kanata-sama, I think we should also plan our wedding as soon as possible." a twenty-one year old lady asked Fiona's older brother.

"You're right. And I never expected that I'll end up marrying you, my first crush, Miyu." the aristocrat told his fiancée.

"Kanata, I can't believe that despite you constantly teasing me since our childhood I would fall in love with you and marry you." his lover told him.

"Thank you for taking care of my parents when they were still imprisoned. I'm sorry I'm not able to rescue you when Van and my sister broke into the prison." Kanata apologized to his soon-to-be-wife.

"You don't need to apologize. You also fought for our freedom, and makes me proud of you." the blond girl has responded as she kissed his lips sincerely.

"Why don't we have a double wedding on that day? Since Van and Fiona will have their at the Byakutaka main village, you could have yours here in the manor." Isami told her eldest child.

"Sounds good." Kanata and Miyu both replied.

"No. I thought that only Van-kun and me are going to get married at that day? Kanata nii-sama is ruining the mood again." Fiona called out to them.

"Spoiled brat as always." Kanata thought.

Ten days later…

"Freiheit Van-san, do you accept Lynette Fiona as your lawful wife and vow to love her and care for her at all times no matter what happens in your life until your final breath?" the preacher asked the young ninja master.

"Yes, and with all of my being." the Byakutaka master retorted to the him.

"Lynette Fiona, do you accept Freiheit Van-san as your lawful husband and vow to love him and serve him at all times no matter what happens in your life until your final breath?"

"Yes, and with all of my being." the young damsel responded to the preacher.

"I now pronounce you as husband and wife. Husband, you may now kiss your wife." the preacher announced to their friends and family.

Right away, Van kissed Fiona's lips with his full passion. All of their friends and loved ones cheered in jubilation as the young ninja master and his newly-wedded wife are now united by a lifetime vow.

"Van-kun, I have always dreamed of this day when I'll be all yours only and you'll be all mine only." Fiona joyfully told her husband.

"Hime, both of are already all for each other only-then, now, and always. We just made this formal for everyone to bear witness." the Byakutaka master has riposted to her.

Soon, Van and Fiona's family, friends, and comrades approached and surrounded them to congratulate them in their new life as husband-and-wife.

"Congratulations, Freiheit Fiona-hime! I'm joyful to have you as my sister-in-law! My otohtoh is full of joy today." Maria complimented to her.

"Arigato, Maria nee-san. I feel so proud now that I'm also a Freiheit!" the yellow-green haired lady has responded to her husband's older sister.

"Kanata must be very proud of you as your older brother, especially that as his younger sister you have proven yourself strong in your own right." Miyu complimented to her soon to be sister-in-law.

"And I pray you'll be joyful with your life after you and Kanata nii-sama get married in a few weeks' time." Fiona responded sincerely to her aniki's fiancée.

"So, how long before you and Van-kun will give me a shinobi nephew whom Dad, Mom, Miyu, and I could spoil?" Kanata teased to his younger sister.

"That will have to wait, Kanata nii-sama." Van retorted to his new older brother-in-law. "So when are you and Ueki-san going to get married?" the ninja master has asked in response.

"Miyu and I have set our wedding day about a month from now. We are still fixing the details." Kanata riposted to him.

"Come on, Van, you two already have our full support. Surely, asking a grandchild from you and our daughter would not be too much, would it?" Atsushi mentioned to his son-in-law as he and his wife congratulated the newly-wed members of their extended family.

"Atsushi-sama, I mean, Otoh-sama, we will surely give that to you. We just need to make ourselves fully ready for our new life." the young Byakutaka master respectfully answered to his father-in-law.

"Van-kun, I know you want me to enjoy my virginity for a little bit longer, right?" Fiona said to her partner.

"Not only do I want both of us to remain virgin for a little longer, but also, I have to catch-up to my comrades in terms of promoting many of my students into higher ranks. Many of them have proven themselves as excellent teachers, especially nee-san since she has managed to train our cousin Catherine so well that she is now a jonin." Van has replied to her.

"Van, that red haori looks very elegant on you!" Thomas complimented to his ally.

"Sou yo! I must look my best since today is my big day with hime." Van responded in appreciation.

"Van-san, you and your wife want to have a drink? I'm bringing you the best sake from Niigata." Ruji called to his childhood friend's attention.

"Maybe later." Van replied to the Aoiroh master.

"Hoi, Ruji-san, don't try to influence Van-kun about drinking sake until he's so drunk." Raven called to their fellow ninja master.

XOXOXOXOXO

This the second to the final chapter of this story. I wasn't able to touch this chapter for more than a year due to my hectic work schedule. I may revise the contents of this chapter sometime in the future.


End file.
